New Tec councillors to take on ward boundary review, public part of process
A petition signed by approximately 370 New Tecumseth residents asking council to review and redraw, if required, the ward boundaries in time for any proposed changes to be implemented for the October 22, 2018 municipal elections, was the impetus that will trigger the process following last night’s vote in favour of pushing forward with it.
The petition (which this writer helped initiate and supported, and whose name is attached to it as the submitter) references Section 223 of the Municipal Act and states as follows:
“(1) Petition re wards – Electors in a municipality may present a petition to the council asking the council to pass a by-law dividing or redividing the municipality into wards or dissolving the existing wards.”
One of the main components of the review will be population. Raw data from MPAC suggests New Tecumseth’s population jumped from 28,754 in 2009 to 40,363 as of June 2016, an increase of 11,609.
New Tecumseth population by Ward. 2009 vs 2016
2009 2016
Ward 1 2,663 2,929 (+266)
Ward 2 4,214 5,698 (+1,484)
Ward 3 3,896 7,059 (+3,163)
Ward 4 2,598 4,444 (+1,846)
Ward 5 2,602 4,235 (+1,633)
Ward 6 3,796 4,423 (+627)
Ward 7 3,995 5,182 (+1,187)
Ward 8 4,990 6,393 (+1,403)
Source: “the raw CD-OASYS data from MPAC. Numbers are approximate.”
New Tecumseth CAO Brendan Holly told council last night that MPAC and the Town use different methods to arrive at population estimates. MPAC, said Mr. Holly includes all classes of land and owners as part of its projections, whereby the municipality starts with the lastest census figure, then adds the number of building/occupancy permits issued, and multiplies it by 2.3 persons (which is the standard provincial multiplier). In that case, Mr. Holly said New Tecumseth’s current population was 37,400.
In July the report to trigger a ward boundary review suggested then by deputy mayor Jamie Smith, was not approved by the majority of council, which was prepared to wait until after the next election for a 2022 implementation. That spurred the petition drive, which also means anyone who signed it can appeal the issue to the Ontario Municipal Board after 90 days.
While there was still resistence as to its timing and potential cost to hire an “expert” there was unaimous agreement that the population growth since 2009, and how it broke down by wards, required revisiting.
“There’s too much of a discrepancy between the wards,” said deputy mayor Smith, while Ward 3 councillor Paul Whiteside suggested, “common sense says we really have to do something here.”
Ward 4 councillor Fran Sainsbury suggested that the review could also conclude that “we have fewer councillors.”
Ward 8 councillor Chris Ross, who helped gather more than 200 of the petition signatures, in reply to Ward 2 councillor Michael Beattie’s concern about the cost of a review, said eliminating one councillor would more than pay for the study.
The recommendation to move forward is expected to be ratified at the Oct. 17th council meeting. It’s also anticipated that a means going forward will be outlined too. A ward review includes mandatory public meetings and input into final recommendations.
To be implemented for 2018, any changes have to be approved by Dec. 31, 2017.
Leave a Reply