Debate over new Toronto ward boundaries delayed until October

Mayor John Tory pushes for more study on ward boundaries and for no new councillors at city hall.

Thestar.com
May 24, 2016
By Jennifer Pagliaro

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee has backed his push to delay the debate over new ward boundaries to the fall.

Tory, who has said clearly he is not interested in increasing the number of councillors at city hall, asked Tuesday night that the consultants hired by the city go back to review several options already passed over.

Specifically, the consultants were asked Tuesday to come up with “refinements” to the 44-ward option which keeps the number of wards exactly the same.

“I’m not in favour of adding any more politicians here,” Tory said. “I think there are ways we can address representation, you know, through staffing and so on and do some alterations to those wards that have greater population discrepancy without adding any politicians. I think we can do that.”

The consultants earlier recommended the 47-ward option, saying it achieved the best voter parity by evening out the number of people in each ward - 61,000 on average - to create more effective representation on council. The study originally shortlisted five options for further consultation with the public and councillors before settling on the 47-ward recommendation.

The 47-ward option would create three new wards downtown, a new ward in North York and collapse three wards west of the downtown core into two wards. It amends the boundaries of many of the other wards while leave just six wards entirely the same.

Scarborough-area councillors Paul Ainslie and Michael Thompson, both on executive, also attempted to move motions which addressed concerns they had in their own individual wards, asking the consultants consider redrawing certain sections they claimed broke up neighbourhoods they currently represent.

When Tory questioned the wisdom of allowing only executive members to recommend changes to their own wards - Thompson helpfully finishing Tory’s thought by suggesting “gerrymandering” as what they could be accused of - those councillors agreed to withdraw their motions.

Executive agreed to have the consultants look at 44 wards again and also at whether 46 wards could achieve voter parity and if the ward boundaries can more closely align with federal and provincial ridings.

The ward boundary review began in 2013 with concerns that uneven ward populations left the city vulnerable to challenges at the provincially legislated Ontario Municipal Board - which could see the OMB dictating ward boundary changes instead of the city.

As part of their report, the consultants set out a schedule that allowed for possible appeals of the proposed boundaries in time to finalize them for the 2018 election.

That original schedule had council approving a bylaw for the new boundaries at the October council meeting. Tory’s schedule would see the debate over boundaries return to the Oct. 26 executive meeting, which means it would not be before council until the November meeting.

While the original schedule allowed enough time for possible appeals, it’s unclear if any new boundaries could be implemented in time for the 2018 election under the new schedule imposed by Tory if there are any appeals to contend with.