{"id":23714,"date":"2019-05-09T16:26:05","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23714"},"modified":"2019-05-16T17:27:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T21:27:16","slug":"council-to-forge-ahead-with-electoral-ward-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-to-forge-ahead-with-electoral-ward-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Council to forge ahead with electoral, ward review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council is set to forge ahead with a review process that could lead to the implementation of a ward system of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lawmakers went into this week’s General Committee meeting facing a recommendation from staff to put an electoral system review on the back burner pending the Province’s ongoing review of Regional Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council, however, had other ideas and voted Tuesday night at Committee to get the ball rolling, a decision expected to be ratified at the Council table in the coming week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, lawmakers reviewed a recommendation calling for a Town-wide study of the Aurora\u2019s electoral system, but staff recommend their approval be contingent on the Regional Governance Review leaving Aurora\u2019s boundaries unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his election last year, Mayor Tom Mrakas made\nadopting a ward system \u2013 where Councillors are elected to represent specific\nsegments of Town \u2013  a top priority, but\nAurora\u2019s Governance Review Ad Hoc Committee has recommended that a wholesale\nreview of the electoral system not go forward until Ontario completes its\nreview of Regional Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Provincial Government is currently undertaking a Regional Government Review, which aims at making recommendations to improve service delivery in parts of Ontario,\u201d said Town Clerk Mike de Rond in his report. \u201cAt this point, few details have emerged as to what changes could be coming to municipal boundaries, if any at all. It has been rumoured that the Government intends to release their findings in the late spring or over the summer; however, this is not confirmed. At their meeting on April 1, the Governance Review Ad Hoc Committee agreed unanimously that the Town\u2019s review should not proceed until the Town has confirmation that the Town of Aurora\u2019s boundaries will not be changing [under the review].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Mr. de Rond notes that electoral system\nreviews, such as the one being proposed here, are \u201cuncommon\u201d projects for\nmunicipalities and usually only occur every eight to twelve years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electoral system reviews are more \u201cinvolved\u201d than a\nregular ward boundary review, he continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If hired, the consultant hired by the Town to carry out\nthe review will be required to do an in-depth analysis of Aurora \u201cto determine\nappropriate ward options\u201d for the community; the aim being any changes stemming\nfrom the review being firmed up in time for the 2022 Municipal Election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA review of the Town\u2019s electoral system is warranted and\nlargely driven by population growth,\u201d says Mr. de Rond. \u201cAccording to Census\ndata, the population of Aurora in 2016 was 55,455. As stated in the population\nstatistics in York Region\u2019s annual Growth and Development Report, the Town\ncontinues to be one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the Region with a\n2.5 per cent increase in population between 2014 and 2015, 4.2 per cent\nincrease between 2015 and 2016, and 5.7 per cent increase between 2016 and\n2017. The Town\u2019s Official Plan (OP) growth forecasts estimate the Town\u2019s\npopulation to increase to 68,100 before the next Municipal Election, and 70,200\nby 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll municipalities in Ontario with a population greater\nthan 50,000, with the exception of North Bay, have adopted a ward system for\nelecting their Councils. With the City of Oshawa moving back to a ward system\nbefore the last election, the Town of Aurora is now the largest municipality in\nOntario to elect their representatives using the at-large system. This is not\nto say that Aurora must make the change to the ward system, as North Bay also\nuses an at-large system and has just 4,000 less residents than Aurora, but\nlooking at whether the at-large system is still best for Aurora warrants a\nreview.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, electoral system reviews usually\nfollow guidelines set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in their Carter\nDecision, set in 1991, which stems from a Saskatchewan case that established\nthe right to \u201ceffective representation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main tenet of the Carter decision is effective\nrepresentation rather than absolute voter parity,\u201d Mr. de Rond explains. \u201cWhen\ndefining effective representation as the right protected by the Charter, the\nCourt noted that the relative parity of voting power was a prime, but not an\nexclusive, condition of effective representation. It found that deviations\ncould be justified where the consideration of other factors, such as geography,\ncommunity history, community interests and minority representation would result\nin a legislative body that was more representative of Canada\u2019s diversity.\nAccording to the Court, considering all these factors provides effective\nrepresentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe principle of representation by population is founded\non the premise that each person is entitled to one vote and that all votes\nshould carry the same weight. Accordingly, in support of this principle, it is\nexpected that each elected representative should generally represent the same\nnumber of constituents. This principle, in a ward system, is tied closely to\nthe principle of effective representation, as any deviation from voting parity\nwould dilute an individual\u2019s right to effective representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs noted in the Carter decision, the recognition and\nprotection of communities of interest may justifiably override the principle of\nvoter parity where the inclusion of a community interest will lead to a system\nthat is more representative of the Town\u2019s diversity. The Court did not define\nwhat constitutes a community of interest; however, it has been leveraged in\nOntario Municipal Board appeals to recognize historical settlement patters or\nexisting communities and to represent social, historical, economic, religious,\nlinguistic or political groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora voters were last asked whether the Town should\nadopt a ward system in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the ballot came down 54.75 per cent in\nfavour of keeping the present at large system.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Council is set to forge ahead with a review process that could lead to the implementation of a ward system of government. Local lawmakers went into this week’s General Committee meeting facing a recommendation from staff to put an electoral system review on the back burner pending the Province’s ongoing review of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6au","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:41:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}