Ballot questions on Stouffville electoral system could come in 2018

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 29, 2017
Simon Martin

The 2018 election is less than a year away in Whitchurch-Stouffville and the ballot could have a few extra questions on it.

Ward 5 Councillor Iain Lovatt wants to look into adding questions to ballot in regards to reviewing the current electoral system in the town.

In a story in the Sun-Tribune earlier this year, it was revealed that the current ward system has very uneven population distribution. In 2014, Ward 6, Stouffville’s largest ward, had 9,062 eligible voters, Ward 1 had 2,753 eligible voters and Ward 3 had 2,433 eligible voters. Ward 6 was more than three times the population of both wards 1 and 3. Those numbers have only gotten more pronounced as the majority of growth in town has occurred in Wards 4 and 6.

Lovatt’s motion suggested the town ask residents, among other things, about reducing the number of councillors, moving to an at-large system and redrawing the ward boundaries.

“This is really about tools at our disposal. I think it is great tool that we can engage the public with,” he said.

The town is set to undertake a review of the electoral system after the 2018 election and Lovatt said it would be helpful to have additional information from the public for that process. 

The mere suggestion of taking a look at the electoral system raised fears, especially among the town’s rural councillors.

Ward 1 Coun. Ken Ferdinands said the current system is still working.

“All of our communities in our diverse municipality feel represented,” he said, adding any change would risk disenfranchising rural voters.

That sentiment was echoed by Ward 2 Coun. Maurice Smith.

“I cannot for a minute believe that representation by population can be the only criteria,” he said, noting while his ward his half the population of Ward 6, he has some residents that are paying huge taxes to the town.

Ward 3 Coun. Hugo Kroon was also worried that any changes might lead to the rural vote in the town being disenfranchised unless the message was highly massaged.

While the rural councillors fretted about potential changes, Ward 6 Coun. Rob Hargrave said it’s time council did something about the obvious problem.

“As the councillor with almost half the population in town, right now the system is broke,” he said. “You cannot have the current population in a ward system. I think it’s important that people have a say in how they want their council structured.”

He’s still upset at how the electoral review in 2009 turned out after councillors changed what the consultant recommended because they feared that their fiefdoms were going to be taken away from them, he said.

Mayor Justin Altmann also weighed in on the matter and said he thinks it would be a good idea to reduce the number of councillors to four and move to an at-large system, saying council could better work together in such a system.

Staff will come forward with potential ballot questions for council to consider at the Dec. 5 council meeting.