Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas wants to eliminate some York regional councilors

Regional council would be cut from 21 members to 10

Yorkregion.com
January 24, 2020
Kim Zarzour

Is it time to get rid of regional councillors?

Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas has presented a novel idea for restructuring York Regional Council, and it could involve regional councillors voting themselves out of a job.

The region’s council currently has 21 members who deal with a variety of services, including water and waste management, housing, police, public health and regional roads.

That includes a regional chair, the mayors from each of the nine municipalities, plus one regional councillor each for Georgina and Newmarket, two regional councillors for Richmond Hill, three regional councillors for Vaughan and four in Markham.

But not everyone on council believes that setup is fair.

Aurora, for example, has a larger population than Georgina, but one fewer vote on council. Vaughan has said it would like to have an equal voice to Markham.

Mrakas believes some changes are warranted.

“Yes, regional government is doing an excellent job and works well together, but representation by population needs to be corrected.”

Ontario’s Municipal Act requires regional council review the numer of members of its council and either reaffirm or change the composition by December of this year.

Mrakas suggests that a drastic change -- eliminating the regional councillors -- would make for a truer representation by population.

“The ultimate fix would be for the nine mayors to have (a) weighted vote and, when (the) population changes, all that would need to be changed would be the votes per mayor,” he said.

If Markham has 30 per cent of the region’s population, for example, then that mayor’s vote would be worth 30 per cent, while Aurora’s vote may be worth five per cent.

Over the years, since council first met in 1970, municipalities whose population increased were given additional seats on council.

Mrakas calls it a Band-Aid approach that will add to taxpayer expense as growth continues.

In addition to the municipal salary, each regional councillor receives $57,923.

Cutting 11 regional councillors could result in a $600,000 savings at the regional level, Mrakas said.

When those regional positions are no longer required at the municipal level, those salaries would also be eliminated and savings could amount to more than $1 million, he added.

Aurora resident Dennis Van Decker called it a good idea, but adds “doubt they will vote themselves out of a job.”

Mrakas admits that he would retain his spot on regional council as Aurora’s mayor, but he insists that he would support the idea, regardless.

“We have to take the politics out of it and take a more wholistic approach.”

When he gave notice of his motion to fellow regional council members this month, there was some visible seat-squirming, with a few members looking keen to speak.

But discussion will have to wait until the item appears on the council agenda in February. That’s when Mrakas hopes a majority on council will agree to ask staff to include the idea as part of its composition review report -- in time to implement any changes for the 2022 election.

“Our job is to get all the information we can and make an informed decision in the best interest of our community.”

Over the years, regional council discussed a variety of changes: from an elected chair (an idea pushed by the Ford government, then abruptly withdrawn shortly before the 2018 municipal election) to increasing the number of members to 27, to changing the role of council to be more “administrative.”

Any changes made to the makeup of regional council would require approval from a triple majority -- a majority of votes on regional council, a majority of the region’s nine municipal councils and local councils representing a majority of eligible voters.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Aurora
Population: 55,445
Mayor: Tom Mrakas

Regional councillors: 0
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 9,241
Geographic size: 49.85 km²

East Gwillimbury
Population: 24,000
Mayor: Virginia Hackson
Regional councillors: 0
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 4,000
Geographic size: 245 km²

Georgina
Population: 45,418
Mayor: Margaret Quirk
Regional councillors: 1
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 7,570
Geographic size: 288 km²

King
Population: 24,512
Mayor: Steve Pellegrini
Regional councillors: 0
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 4,085
Geographic size: 333 km²

Markham
Population: 328,966
Mayor: Frank Scarpitti
Regional councillors: 4
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 27,416
Geographic size: 212.35 km²

Newmarket
Population: 84,224
Mayor: John Taylor
Regional councillors: 1
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 10,528
Geographic size: 38.45 km²

Richmond Hill
Population: 185,540
Mayor: Dave Barrow
Regional councillors: 2
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 23,193
Geographic size: 100.95 km²

Vaughan
Population: 306,230

Mayor: Maurizio Bevilacqua
Regional councillors: 3
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 38,279
Geographic size: 273.52 km²

Whitchurch-Stouffville
Population: 45,837
Mayor: Iain Lovatt
Regional councillors: 0
Average number of constituents per councillor (ward and regional): 7,640
Geographic size: 206.41 km²