Ward 5 councillor Robert Kirwan says that the new city council will have a lot to tackle after the Oct. 22 election.
While issues like the Kingsway Entertainment District, city infrastructure, and taxes have been at the forefront of many candidates' campaigns, Kirwan is looking ahead to when the next council are in their seats in council chambers.
"City Council has already directed staff to do a ward boundary review following the election in October. Staff have been asked to bring back a report to the next Council with recommendations on the possible realignment of our ward boundaries," said Kirwan in a news release.
"On top of ward boundaries, the new Council will also have to wrestle with bringing back paper ballots as an option on Election Day 2022, whether or not to go with a "ranked balloting" system, whether or not to reduce the size of Council, and whether or not to move to a 'Councillor at Large' model with full-time councilors. All of these matters need to be decided early enough in the new term so that any approved changes can be ready for the next election."
Full text of Kirwan's release can be found below:
Candidates in this year’s municipal election have been focused on topics such as the KED, leadership, infrastructure and taxes. But there is one topic that the new council is going to have to deal with during 2019 that will have a profound impact on the future of this city and it is important for residents to express their opinions before voting takes place.
City Council has already directed staff to do a ward boundary review following the election in October. Staff have been asked to bring back a report to the next Council with recommendations on the possible realignment of our ward boundaries.
On top of ward boundaries, the new Council will also have to wrestle with bringing back paper ballots as an option on Election Day 2022, whether or not to go with a "ranked balloting" system, whether or not to reduce the size of Council, and whether or not to move to a "Councillor at Large" model with full-time councilors. All of these matters need to be decided early enough in the new term so that any approved changes can be ready for the next election.
I think the easiest matter to examine is the ward boundary situation. The main criteria which triggers the need for a review of Ward boundaries is population. The Provincial government mandates that all Wards must be balanced so that constituents have effective and equitable representation. So where population variances are significant, it stands to reason that a review of boundary lines would be appropriate. In our case, I do not feel the population has not shifted enough to throw off the balance and so the main reason for changing boundaries is not present. However, City Council directed staff to do a review and so it will be done for the new Council to consider.
If we were to recommend changing ward boundaries to reflect geographically distinct communities, the Ontario Municipal Board, now the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, may overturn the decision, stating that we may not be providing effective representation to all wards. For example, if we added two more councillors, it would be necessary for us to make sure that each ward has approximately the same number of constituents. Our 14 Councillors would each be required to represent approximately the same number of residents so that no particular ward would get an advantage over the other.
In other words, we could not assign a separate ward Councillor to Capreol and/or Onaping because the ward councillors in those two wards would be representing a much smaller population than the other 12 wards. The Province would likely not allow this to happen.
The timelines would have to be considered as well. We would have to complete the Ward Boundary Review with all of the necessary public consultations during 2020 in order to allow time in 2021 for potential appeals to be heard and to allow sufficient time to put everything in place for 2022. So when the report is presented in 2019, we would have to make a decision during that year in order to meet the timeline restrictions.
I imagine there would be a lot of public debate if Council proposed a change in ward boundaries.
After serving almost a full term as Councillor for Ward 5, I have come to the conclusion that the Ward system as it stands now is working fine. Ward 5 extends from Dominion Drive south all the way to the tracks on Notre Dame in Sudbury. It includes Val Caron, Blezard Valley, McCrea Heights, Guilletville, Cambrian Heights, the west side of Notre Dame including Cambrian Heights and all the way over to Terry Fox Field, and the area east along Lasalle on both the north and south side up to Madeleine Street.
There is so much diversity in Ward 5 that it gives me insight into virtually every aspect of our city. And I have found no problem meeting the individual and collective needs of my constituents since I am able to devote full time (and then some) in order to be available to them when they need me.
So, rest assured that there will be a Ward Boundary Review in 2019, but I know that I won't be in favour of any realignment that changes the boundaries of Ward 5. I do not feel that my constituents would be well served by a change in boundaries.
More from Robert Kirwan can be found on his election page on Sudbury.com
