Proposal for Toronto council term limits punted

TheStar.com
February 22, 2019
David Rider

 

Toronto council’s democratic makeover could include everything from empowered neighbourhood councils to public presentations via video -- but it won’t include term limits for councillors.

City council’s committee on democratic governance, struck after Premier Doug Ford’s government unilaterally slashed the number of councillors to 25, met Thursday for the first time.

City council’s committee on democratic governance, struck after Premier Doug Ford’s government unilaterally slashed the number of councillors to 25, met Thursday for the first time to look at how a shrunken council can tackle citywide problems.

The committee has a year to recommend ways for citizens to maintain access to their elected officials, and for councillors to keep an eye on city business with wards suddenly doubled in size, when there are roughly 110,000 Torontonians per city councillor.

In the aftermath of last October’s election and the council cut still being challenged by the city in court, city staff recommended several interim measures including collapsing the number of major committees from seven to four.

But it’s up to the special governance committee to identify more long-term fixes.

Alan Kaperski of the Green Party of Toronto told councillors the city needs neighbourhood councils empowered to make decisions on local matters like those in London, U.K.’s dozens of boroughs.

“Does it make any sense that you folks debate fence exemptions, on-pad parking, removals of trees? It doesn’t,” he said. “My neighbours on my street are better placed to deal with those kinds of things.”

Dave Meslin, a prominent democratic reform activist, said Toronto should have a new “lower tier” of local representatives -- elected or not -- to act as a conduit to the upper tier dealing more with citywide issues, Meslin said, adding 1998 amalgamation muted the voices of suburban residents.

“We need to do a made-in-Toronto solution,” that also includes big supports for existing residents’ associations, he said. “We don’t have to de-amalgamate to
give them back a voice -- just create a lower tier that returns local autonomy for local issues.”

Other suggestions included using teleconferencing technology to let residents in different parts of the city have their say on city issues without having to be in the same room as councillors.

Rookie councillors Brad Bradford (Ward 19 Beaches-East York) and Jennifer McKelvie (Ward 25 Scarborough-Rouge Park) urged the committee to ask city staff to look at imposing term limits in a bid to increase council turnover and diversity.

Bradford, who campaigned on the issue in a successful bid to replace retiring Mary-Margaret McMahon, said “incumbency bias” gives existing councillors an unfair advantage. City staff should report on term limits as a possible way to get fresh blood and ideas onto council, he said.

McKelvie agreed, saying the cut to 25 councillors from a planned 47 has made the problem worse, giving non-incumbents “twice the challenge with twice the geography and twice the population,” to woo in an uphill battle to unseat a veteran. She wants a limit of three terms, or 12 years.

The committee, however, voted 3-1 to indefinitely shelve the request for a staff report.

Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park), who voted with the majority, said councillors are free to voluntarily limit their own terms. Making the rule citywide would be “saying ‘The voters in wards other than mine keep making a mistake.’ ... The voters are always right,” Perks said.

Councillor Shelley Carroll (Ward 17 Don Valley North) said she wants to see what governance reform ideas staff recommend before deciding whether to go down the term-limit path, adding she won’t rule it out for the future.

Committee members, who next meet April 12, tasked staff with devising a workplan and offering advice on getting public input.