Road Ahead: Elected York Region chair debate returns Feb. 18

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 31, 2015
By Lisa Queen

After putting off making a decision in November about electing York’s chairperson, regional council will take another stab at tackling the high-profile issue early in 2016.

The chair, arguably the region’s most powerful political position, is now selected at the beginning of each term by a majority of 20 regional councillors.

But it should be voters making the decision, argues Markham Councillor Joe Li, who brought in a motion at the Nov. 19 council meeting.

“We are telling the world we should be more democratic. You see around the world, people are fighting now for a democratic process,” he said.

A number of residents urged council to move to an elected chair.

Voters should decide the position, which oversees a budget of more than $2 billion and represents the region on the provincial, national and international stages, 16-year-old Aurora resident Benjamin Williamson said.

“Canada is a democracy where the people’s voice matters,” he said.

Bob Mok, president of the Downtown Markham Ratepayers Association, said the current system means the chair does not have a mandate from voters.

“It (the position) is indebted to the small circle of voters within the York Region council who put it there,” he said.

“It is imperative that change must come and without further delay.”

The issue will now come back to council Feb. 18, along with a staff report on the chair selection process in other regions.

Chairs in Durham, Halton and Waterloo are elected by voters.

Staff will also submit a report about undertaking a comprehensive review of governance in the region, along with proposed terms of reference for a study.

The review could include looking at the number of regional councillors each municipality has. At the moment, Markham has five, Vaughan has four, Richmond Hill has three, Newmarket and Georgina each have two and East Gwillimbury, Aurora, Whitchurch-Stouffville and King each have one.

It could also look at whether or not regional councillors should be directly elected. Now, they sit on both regional and local councils.

In 2012, council voted to keep the current system of regional councillors selecting the chair.

But councillors can either agree to an elected chair themselves or wait for Queen’s Park to impose a solution, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard said.

He has introduced a private member’s bill, which has passed second reading, to make the job an elected position.

“There are two ways to deal with this. If I were a regional councillor, I would be saying, ‘We could develop a made-in-York Region solution or we could have Queen’s Park impose a made-in-Queen’s Park solution’,” he said, adding residents seems to favour an elected chair.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s coming down the pike and do you want to drive the car or do you want to be a passenger?"