Instead, the proposal is a response to failed attempts at super councils in the North Island.
Under the proposed system, local representation would stay as it is, but areas from payroll to IT, legal services, water, wastewater and roading services could be shared.
The region's mayors appeared largely supportive of an idea they say could provide efficiencies and cost savings, but should not lead to staff cuts.
In a statement yesterday, Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden, also joint council spokeswoman, said chief executives from the Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago, Clutha and Waitaki district councils, the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council, would over coming months seek the support of their elected members to investigate "opportunities for efficiency''.
Representatives from the Otago councils had agreed - subject to support from elected members - to carry out those reviews together, Ms van Uden said.
Costs of the review would also be shared between the councils.
Speaking from Wellington yesterday, Ms van Uden said the review did not necessarily mean anything would change.
"We all have to do the review. What we've said is ‘Why don't we just do them together' [rather than] having six consultants or six lots of staff doing the same work.
"[But] our minds are open to all of the options to deliver better services to our community.
"Protecting our turf ... is not what we should be doing.
"To me, the focus is how do we do it better for the people we're doing it for?''
Included in the review would be water, wastewater and stormwater; transport, including roading; regulatory, for example consents; and back office services, such as rates and communications.
Earlier this year, plans for single councils in Wellington, Northland and Hawke's Bay were scrapped because of community opposition.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said he thought the idea to amalgamate services was a good one, as did the Government.
"This is an alternative to amalgamation of councils.''
After the northern councils' amalgamation failed, the Government said councils should look at "shared provision of services through such mechanisms as council-controlled organisations''.
"There's a clear directive from central Government.''
Mr Cull said services that could be shared might include payroll, insurance or IT.
"The smaller the council, the less likely it is to have all the resources needed to do all the things local government is required to do.
"It gets harder and harder in the regions to do justice to all our responsibilities.
"By sharing resources, we can provide better value and opportunity to reduce costs.''
On possible staff losses, Mr Cull said the proposal was more likely to mean "staff in different places''.
"It isn't so much about losing staff; it's about having the right people to do it, but with the benefit of scale.''
Ms van Uden said within the QLDC "we're not overstaffed with people twiddling their thumbs''.
Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead said he was "absolutely 100% supportive'' of the proposal.
"The days of every individual council doing its own thing for all services - it's just ridiculous, frankly.''
He suggested legal services as an area for amalgamation, collaboration on roading services, or one central base for specialist staff such as engineers.
"It's logical.''
The debate around amalgamation in the North Island was "highly emotive'' and communities had come out strongly in favour of keeping local representation, Mr Woodhead said.
"I agree with that and consider just jumping into an amalgamation discussion is attacking things from the wrong end.''
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said because amalgamation had proved so unpopular, shared services might be a better way forward.
"The reality is that we can keep our separate organisations, but if there's some sharing of services in those back-office functions ... we can actually gain efficiencies - still keep our identities, still keep our local communities of interest, but do things more effectively and efficiently.''
