The curious case of Brant County

The city of Brantford is like an island surrounded by a moat.

That moat is called Brant County.

Ever heard of it?

Don’t apologize if you haven’t. It’s a small, mostly rural municipality with 25,000 residents whose biggest centre is Paris. Not that Paris – the other one.

Paris used to be called one of the prettiest little towns in the province, but now it’s been downgraded to mere community status, since the town label was banished after Brant County was formed 10 years ago. Brant was born after the amalgamation of a number of small towns and townships: Paris, St. George, Burford, Scotland, Oakland, Cainsville, Mount Pleasant and Brantford Township.

Geographically, it stretches from Ancaster’s border in the east to Oxford County in the west, from Cambridge’s outskirts in the north to Norfolk County in the south.

But what makes Brant a curiosity is that it surrounds the municipality of Brantford. Brantford dwarfs Brant with 60,000 more residents, but it is landlocked by its neighbour, which boasts more square kilometres of Ontario earth. You can’t leave Brantford in any direction without passing through Brant. Luckily, there’s no toll booths.

What’s even odder is that Brant exists at all. Does it make sense to have a municipality surround a city? No.

It’s as if the province, after promoting, pushing and sometimes imposing the amalgamation of municipalities, threw up its hands and walked away mumbling, leaving the job half done in Brantford-Brant’s case.

The two municipalities do work together on some things. There’s a joint health unit and ambulance service, they jointly run services for seniors, and they sometimes promote tourism together. But they could do so much more. Sometimes there’s feuding, as in the case of the library systems. Brantford’s public library charges Brant residents to use it; Brant doesn’t charge Brantford people. That’s left hard feelings.

The two municipalities have been trying to work out a mutually beneficial deal for years that could help each prosper in the future. Brantford badly wants Brant County land to expand its borders to house more residents and industry; Brant needs the big city’s money, water and services to keep its residents happy. But there’s been flare-ups of animosity and negotiated deals have fallen through, so now no one is happy.

The failure to reach a deal after years of trying has prompted Brantford councillors to periodically demand that the province step in to fix the problem — and abolish Brant if needed.

In the past, Brant County politicians have fretted about losing their community’s rural quality of live if amalgamated. That was the same argument various people made when Brant was formed in 1999 from smaller municipalities. It hasn’t happened.

Together, the two municipalities could be stronger and leaner and bring many benefits to each other. But there’s little prospect of the two getting hitched any time soon voluntarily. That’s why it will take their parents — the province of Ontario — to force them into it. Let’s remember, there are lots of happy arranged marriages.