Will lower income voters get drowned out with fewer municipal wards?

Thestar.com
July 30, 2018
Tamar Harris

Ryan Noble remembers how integral the support of the local city councillor was to getting a spot for the North York Harvest Foodbank in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood.

“We would not have been able to secure that unit without Josh Colle’s support,” said Noble, the food bank’s executive director.

Judith Wehby and granddaughter Alyssa Wehby check the expiry dates on cans of food at the North York Harvest Food Bank's annual Spring Food Drive in 2015. Executive director Ryan Noble credits his city councillor with securing space for the operation.

“We rely heavily on our city councillors to do the work that we do.”

It’s the kind of connection Noble worries might be lost under the new plan proposed by the province to collapse city wards into 25, rather than 47, merging the neighbourhood with the higher-income area to the east into one big ward of Eglinton—Lawrence.

Lawrence Heights is one of several communities across the city that will be combined under the new ward boundaries, lumping together areas with stark income disparities and raising questions about whether poorer residents will have the same access to representation under the new model.

“My biggest concern is if we lose the number of councillors and presumably that will mean we’ll have less time with the councillors that are here, that will have an impact on our ability to deliver service in most neighbourhoods,” Noble said of the proposed changes.

The new ward of Eglinton—Lawrence will combine parts of the planned Ward 13, with its average household income of $98,514 and an unemployment rate of 8.4 per cent, and Ward 14, with an average household income of $222,305 and unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent.

Something that Noble said could mean less attention to issues of food security, income and housing that are top of mind to Lawrence Heights residents.

“Your concerns in your neighbourhood are the things that you see and participate in and are part of every day,” he said.

“If you have more people and they’re spread over a larger distance you’ll become on average less and less attuned to the specific food security issues that we’re dealing with.”

Young people, new immigrants and renters are less likely to show up to vote, she said, so “councillors and candidates for council don’t pay so much attention to them, they don’t bother to canvas in certain kinds of apartment buildings and so on.”

“And so you have a vicious circle whereby a certain sector of the population that is middle-aged and (owns homes and businesses) is regarded as having more valuable votes.”

The new city council wards will align with their provincial and federal counterparts. Nelson Wiseman, a professor in the department of political science at U of T, said those wards already have income gaps.

“Representation in Canada, at all three levels of government, is based on geography, not on income,” he said.

“Depending on how much those voices are diluted, because of the shifts, would be something that the ward boundary consultants would have considered,” she said.

“If we just rush into this without thinking about what some of these effects are gong to be, it can lead to real challenges for particular communities to have their interests heard and to be well represented.”

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Here’s a look at some of the new wards that will have a notable income gap:

Beaches—East York
The new ward will combine parts of the planned Ward 35 and Ward 37.

In Ward 35, according to the city, the unemployment rate is 8.9 per cent. The average household income is $79,132. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $20,000 to $49,999 at 29 per cent.

In Ward 37, the unemployment rate is 6.9 per cent. The average household income is $102,721. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $125,000+ at 34 per cent.

Scarborough Southwest
The new ward will combine parts of the planned Ward 38 and Ward 39.

In Ward 38, the unemployment rate is 9.8 per cent. The average household income is $93,516. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $20,000 to $49,999 at 26 per cent.

In Ward 39, the unemployment rate is 9.9 per cent. The average household income is $67,193. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $20,000 to $49,999 at 32 per cent.

Eglinton—Lawrence
The new ward will combine parts of the planned Ward 13 and Ward 14.

In Ward 13, the unemployment rate is 8.4 per cent. The average household income is $98,514. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $20,000 to $49,999 at 27 per cent.

In Ward 14, the unemployment rate is 6.8 per cent. The average household income is $222,305. The largest proportion of household income in the ward is $125,000+ at 44 per cent.