East Gwillimbury wants more councillors as town grows

EG has smallest council in York Region

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 10, 2015
By Simon Martin

East Gwillimbury has the smallest council in York Region.

The five-member group consisting of Mayor Virginia Hackson and councillors Marlene Johnston, James Young, Tara Roy-DiClemente and Joe Persechini also happens to be the smallest allowed by the Ontario Municipal Act.

However, council might not be so small after the next election.

Council voted 3-2 to go forward with an electoral review in 2016, allotting $30,000 to the project during 2016 budget deliberations.

“I believe we should be doing some sort of a review,” Hackson said.

Councillors Roy-DiClemente and Persechini are in favour of allotting $30,000 to the review. While Young and Johnston voted against the motion, it doesn’t mean they weren’t in favour of a review.

The councillors just didn’t want to set aside money without first having a discussion at council about what it would encompass.

Johnston wasn’t certain that $30,000 was needed for a consultant to get council to add two more councillors.

Council hasn’t discussed the scope of the electoral review yet. It could look at only adding two councillors or it could also look at moving from an at large voting system to a ward system.

“This is a huge discussion. I don’t want to lose this opportunity,” Roy-DiClemente said.

Up until this year, there was little appetite from council to pursue an electoral review after the 2010 referendum question - Are you in favour of the existing electoral system of electing four councillors at large in East Gwillimbury? - had almost 3,000 more “yes” than “no” votes.

East Gwillimbury and Aurora are the only municipalities in York Region with at-large electoral systems. Under the current format, the four councillor candidates who receive the most votes are elected.

The ward system is favoured by some because it lends itself to a more fair and guaranteed representation for individual communities at council.

That becomes an issue in East Gwillimbury, where Holland Landing, Sharon, Mount Albert, Queensville and Harvest Hills are rather distinct communities. Currently, East Gwillimbury doesn’t have a councillor from Mount Albert.

Johnston cited the 2010 referendum result as proof residents have little desire to change the electoral system, but Roy-DiClemente has made it known that she wasn’t happy with how the question was phrased, not offering any alternative to the at-large system.

Regardless of if the town is looking at adding councillors or changing to a ward system, Persechini said it’s important for council to keep its eyes down the road.

“We have to plan for the future,” he said. “We have a lot of people coming in the next few years.”

It’s important for council to have the conversation about an electoral review, Young said, but it would be hasty to budget money for it because council doesn’t know what the money is going toward.