GOVERNANCE MODEL UNCERTAINTY: GOING TO THE PEOPLE

NRU
July 26, 2017
Sarah Niedoba

With the December 31 deadline for municipalities to finalize ward boundaries for the 2018 municipal elections fast approaching, East Gwillimbury council is backing away from the governance model it approved last month.

At its June 20 meeting, council approved a hybrid ward model, which would change the council structure from five at-large councillors and the mayor, to four ward councillors, two at-large councillors, and the mayor.

However, when staff presented boundary options for the new four-ward model at its July 18 meeting, council had a change of heart.

After Mayor Virginia Hackson expressed concern that the public had not been adequately consulted on the model, council directed staff to prepare a report with three options for public consultation in September. The options include the previously approved four-ward hybrid model, a three-ward model and a five-ward model previously proposed by consultants Andrew Sancton and Timothy Cobban, which council had rejected in March.

“I think what’s happened is that we’ve seen several different proposals, but we don’t have enough public feedback on any of them,” Hackson told NRU. “We’ve looked over the four-ward model, and we’d seen the models presented by the consultants, but as a council we don’t feel confident that we know what our constituents want.”

But Sancton, who oversaw several public consultations while developing his proposed ward models earlier in the year, isn’t confident that the public will want to participate in further consultation.

“Our public consultations did not stir a whole lot of enthusiasm,” he told NRU. “It didn’t seem to be a topic that grasped much interest—we had a consultation where no one came, and we had another where a dozen or so did. But it was never very many people.”

Councillor James Young says that the low turnouts demonstrate an apathetic public. He wants to place the question of whether or not to adopt a ward model on the 2018 ballot.

“I’m not pro-ward or anti-ward, but my issue is that I don’t think we have a good understanding of what the public wants—right now, I don’t know if the majority want a ward model,” he told NRU.

Young says that he is worried that council is “making things up as we go along,” and that placing the question on that ballot could provide a stronger sense of direction. But Hackson says East Gwillimbury’s population is growing too fast to delay the decision any longer.

“The difficulty that is facing us is the rapid growth that is happening in East Gwillimbury,” she says. “Before we’re done the next term of council, we’ll have doubled in size, so I don’t think it’s good enough to just stay the same.”

Hackson is confident that further public consultation in September will provide council with the information it needs to make a decision before the December 31 deadline.

“I don’t think we’ve hesitated or lost too much time with it,” she says. “I think it’s important to make sure we know what our constituents want, and that’s what we’re doing.”