East Gwillimbury looks for public input on changes to electoral system

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 23, 2017
By Simon Martin

East Gwillimbury wants your input on its electoral system once again.

A year after an extensive electoral review, with public consultations held across town, council wants more public consultations before ultimately decided on the future of the town's electoral system.

Public open houses have been scheduled for the first week of September. Each session runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and residents can drop in anytime. The meetings will be held: Tuesday, Sept. 5 at the Ross Family Complex in Mount Albert, Wednesday, Sept. 6 at the Civic Centre in Sharon and Thursday, Sept. 7 at the Holland Landing Community Centre.

While the public consultations held during the electoral review were light on specific models, council is bringing three different options to public to hear feedback.

Option 1 is a four-ward hybrid model with a mayor, four ward councillors and two councilors elected at large. Option 2 is a three-ward model with a mayor and six ward councilors - two in each ward. Option 3 is an at-large model with a mayor and six councilors elected at large, with council transitioning to a five-ward model in the 2022 election with one councillor elected at large.

If you can't attend the public consultations, you can provide feedback via an online survey on eastgwillimbury.ca.

Mayor Virginia Hackson's main concern is for the size of council to increase, as the population of the town is set to double by 2020. Any changes before the 2018 election would have to be implemented before Dec. 31 of this year. Lamanna said ward boundaries can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board and time for an appeal has to be taken into to account when making a decision.

"I don't think we have any more important decision before us," Hackson said.

In June, council proposed to move forward with a new electoral system for the 2018 election that would move the town to a hybrid ward system with four ward councillors and two at-large. But when councillors saw how the wards were being sliced and diced in July, things were put on hold. The change was not entirely unforeseen. Councillor James Young told council in June that he got the impression they were making things up as the they went along.

The electoral review consultants the town hired recommended council move to a ward system that would feature three wards - Holland Landing, Queensville-Sharon and Mount Albert-rural - in the 2018 election. In addition to three ward councillors, there would be three at-large councilors elected.  In the following election in 2022, there would be five wards, as the Holland Landing and Queensville-Sharon wards would be split and the Mount Albert rural ward would remain intact.

Town staff responded to the consultants' report earlier this year with a report recommending East Gwillimbury not move to a ward system in 2018, but add two more at-large councillors. At the time, Lamanna said the preferred option of a ward system was confusing because boundaries had to change after one election.