Voters should pick York Region chairman: Councillor

TorontoSun.com
Oct. 19, 2014
Jenny Yuen

With York Region Chairman Bill Fisch set to retire in November after a fifth term, one Newmarket regional councillor candidate wants to see voters select a replacement.

Under the current rules, the next chair will be appointed by members of York Regional Council.

“(Direct election of a regional chair) is already working well in Halton, Waterloo and Niagara,” Darryl Wolk said. “I think what would happen if you had an election of regional chair and all the communities were able to participate, it would raise a lot of awareness in the regional issues.”

While Bill 16 — provincial legislation that would enable voters to select their regional chair — passed second reading unanimously, there’s no chance it will pass third reading in time for the Oct. 27 election.

Wolk said he would like to see a regional chairman who understands traffic issues along Hwy. 7 or building a hi-tech economy in Markham while preserving Lake Simcoe.

“It would have to be someone who understands all municipalities,” he explained. “Because of the size of York Region, you would want somebody with some name recognition and that was well-known. If I’m elected, the very first motion I’m going to put forth is to elect a regional chair and have that done in time for 2018.”

York Region is expected to grow by about 500,000 people to 1.5 million residents by 2031.