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Citizens? watch group will challenge council

BY TRACEY DUGUAY [email protected] Close to 90 percent of citizens surveyed believe the issue of ward restructuring in Greater Sudbury should have been voted on as a referendum question during the 2006 municipal election.

BY TRACEY DUGUAY

Close to 90 percent of citizens surveyed believe the issue of ward restructuring in Greater Sudbury should have been voted on as a referendum question during the 2006 municipal election.

The poll commissioned by the Greater Sudbury Municipal Watch, a seven-member coalition of private citizens with an interest in municipal affairs also found that about 0.2 percent of respondents believe ward restructuring is an important issue.

According to a letter submitted by the group to Mayor David Courtemanche and the rest of city council, ?A total of 453 respondents, 18 years of age and older, were interviewed in a ward-by-ward basis in August 2005.?

Oraclepoll Research conducted the public opinion survey on behalf of the municipal watch. The margin of error for the survey is plus/minus 4.6 percent, 19 out of 20 times.

Other interesting results include:

- 61 percent of respondents believing there are just the right number of councillors.

- 62 percent feel there are just the right number of wards in order to represent the city adequately.

- 85 percent said they had not contacted they?re councillor in the past year, 15 percent had.

- 37 percent indicated they were neither dissatisfied nor satisfied with the current six-ward system with having two councillors in each ward. Thirty-six percent were totally satisfied, 24 percent totally dissatisfied, and three percent didn?t know.

- 70 percent believe there hasn?t been enough public consultation on the new ward boundaries.

- 49 percent would vote to keep the six-ward structure if the question went to a referendum, while 34 percent would vote to change to a 12-ward system, and 17 percent don?t know how they would vote.

- 38 percent thought roads were the most important issue facing the City of Greater Sudbury at this time. Ward restructuring ranked at .02 percent.

The survey results reaffirmed Municipal Watch?s intention to fight council?s decision to restructure the ward system by going through with their appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The group previously said if the survey proved citizens supported the restructuring they would drop their appeal.

The hearing by the OMB is scheduled to begin Oct. 4 at Tom Davies Square in council chambers at 10 am.

Municipal Watch is paying for the professional survey and all costs associated with the appeal out of its own pockets. While they refused to state the cost outright, especially because the numbers are still climbing, it is expected to cost in the thousands.

There are also costs for the city related to this appeal.

City solicitor Ron Swiddle explained an external lawyer was hired to defend the city?s position, due to scheduling conflicts with the internal representatives. Ballpark estimates on the city?s costs aren?t available yet, but logic dictates this amount will run in the thousands too.


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