A town divided: controversial hybrid ward system proposed

NRU
June 28, 2017
By Sarah Niedoba

In a move to address East Gwillimbury’s growing population, council approved a hybrid ward system that would increase the size of council and change the method used to elect councillors last week.

At council’s June 20 meeting, Councillor Tara Roy-DiClemente proposed the new system, which consists of the mayor, four ward councillors, and two at-large councillors.

Currently, council comprises five members - the mayor and four at-large councillors.

Roy-DiClemente’s proposal comes after the town rejected a proposal by consultants Dr. Andrew Sancton and Dr. Tim Cobban in December. This called for a three-ward system for the 2018 municipal election, and a five-ward system for the 2022 election. Subsequently, staff proposed adding two at-large councillors to make a seven-member council.

Roy-DiClemente told NRU that, as East Gwillimbury is one of the province’s growth centres, the current at-large system is at risk of becoming outdated.

“We’re challenged by the fact that the population is going to quite literally explode in the next few years at an irregular pace, based on where subdivisions are being constructed,” she says. “[At the public meetings the consultants held] there were people who were very vocal about wanting a ward system, and others who said that they liked having five members of council to bring their issues to - there wasn’t a clear way forward.”

She says that the ward system that was proposed by the consultants was too confusing for residents, while staff’s suggestion of remaining at-large didn’t address the idea of having councillors that could speak for specific areas and neighbourhoods. Roy-DiClemente hopes the hybrid system will speak to both sides of the debate, appeasing those who like the current model, while preparing the town for future growth.

“This is basically an attempt to get the best of both worlds,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to try a ward system, but also gives us a bit of a transition period, where people can speak to more than one councillor.” Sancton says that while council is looking for a permanent solution that could last through several election cycles, the growth of East Gwillimbury won’t allow for it.

“It can’t be done,” he says. “By any projection East Gwillimbury is going to grow dramatically, and the growth isn’t going to be spread evenly around the municipality. The only way they can get around changing the wards as the population grows is by not being terribly concerned about the size of the population in some of the wards.”

Roy-DiClemente’s proposal was approved in a vote of 3-2, with councillors James Young and Marlene Johnston voting in the negative.

Reflecting on the results of a question on the 2010 ballot - 76.5 per cent of respondents indicated that they wanted to keep the at-large system - Young and Johnston plan to bring forward a motion at the next council meeting calling for a question about the new system to be placed on the 2018 ballot.

“I don’t feel that the community has been properly engaged in the process, and I haven’t heard from my constituents that this is something that they are interested in seeing happening,” Johnston told NRU. “The system of governing should be something that the community whole heartedly supports and understands.”

Young agrees, saying that the lack of public consultation for the approved option is troubling.

“We’ve just had a member of council suggest a format that didn’t even go out to the public for discussion,” Young told NRU. “At the end of the day, you shouldn’t be making changes until you go back to the electorate.”

Council directed staff to come up with boundaries for the proposed hybrid system for council to consider at its next meeting, July 18.

Meanwhile, there is discussion as to what factors should be taken into consideration when determining the boundaries.

Roy-DiClemente suggests the ward boundaries could be aligned with garbage collection routes.

“There are four garbage collection routes, so four wards just made sense,” she says. “The majority of calls I get from my constituents are regarding garbage collection.”

Sancton says that he’s never heard of ward boundaries being created in alignment with garbage collection routes, and has concerns about the how effective the system would be.

“If the garbage collection routes happen to perfectly line up with population that would be great,” he told NRU. “But my suspicion is that the more rural garbage routes have a much smaller population - and even if it works in 2018, it’s very unlikely that it would in 2022.”