{"id":25920,"date":"2020-02-13T19:09:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T00:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25920"},"modified":"2020-02-21T18:16:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:16:20","slug":"auroras-regional-representation-reviewed-by-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-regional-representation-reviewed-by-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s Regional representation reviewed by York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas\u2019 motion to reduce the size of Regional\nCouncil from its current slate of 21 members, to just a Regional Chair and York\nRegion\u2019s nine mayors fizzled last week, but further representation for Aurora\nis set for further discussion later this month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If passed, Mayor Mrakas\u2019 motion would have produced a\nreport on the viability of shrinking the size of Regional Council in favour of\na new system where each Mayor would have a single vote weighted according to\nthe population of their respective municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members sitting at the Committee of the Whole last week\nvoted against sending the motion to staff on a vote of 13 \u2013 5, effectively pouring\ncold water on the idea before Regional Council another look at further\ncomposition options on February 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many other scenarios approved by Committee for\nfurther consideration at the end of the month, however, included adding another\nRegional Councillor to represent those communities with only one member at the\nRegion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Region municipalities currently represented by one\nRegional member \u2013 their respective mayors \u2013 include Aurora, King,\nWhitchurch-Stouffville and East Gwillimbury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas\u2019 initial motion, he said, was a bid to\nachieve better representation at the Region with just one member per\nmunicipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to complete a thorough governance review and\nensure a timely, effective and informed decision, all members of this Council\nshould want complete information on all options,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas, making his\npitch to the Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in favour of the matter, Mayor Mrakas outlined a\nhistory of governance at the Region, noting it has been a continual \u201cimperfect\u201d\nprocess to ensure effective representation by population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince its inception [over 40 years ago], the size of\nRegional Council has grown by almost 25 per cent and the associated costs have\ngrown as well,\u201d he continued. \u201cYork Region will continue to grow and\nrepresentation by population will continue to be an issue. If we maintain our\ncurrent practice of adding Regional Councillors to address the issue of voting\nequality for population disparity, our Regional Council will continue to\nballoon in size and in cost. Clearly, we should explore more cost-effective\noptions than our current approach of adding members to solve representation\nissues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution, he said, is to reduce the size of Council\nto just heads of Municipal Council \u2013 the Mayors \u2013 and implement weighted double\nmajority voting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe status quo is not equitable and with our current\nstructure, some municipalities are underrepresented and others are\noverrepresented,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a responsibility to continually seek and do\nthings better and this governance review is part of fulfilling that\nresponsibility. Reducing Council and implementing weighted double-majority\nvoting is the most cost-effective way to achieve equitable, effective\ndecision-making at Regional Council. At the very least, it is our duty to\nconsider it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow members of Regional Council felt differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First to speak against the matter was Markham Regional\nCouncillor Jim Jones who said there were other solutions that would achieve\nbetter results for York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re really looking at substantial savings, it is\nchicken feed the savings you\u2019re going to get by doing something on elected\npoliticians,\u201d he said, suggesting amalgamation throughout York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richmond Hill Councillor Carmine Perrelli said he\ncouldn\u2019t support the motion and suggested a move away from having mayors at the\nRegional table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if we\u2019re going to go away from proportional\nrepresentation, which seems to be what this [motion] is doing and we\u2019re going\nto go to a model of weighted votes, I would suggest at some point, if it is the\nwill of this Committee, that we let the mayors run the cities and we let the\nRegional Councillors run the Region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was similar to the view offered by Markham Regional\nCouncillor Don Hamilton, who said leaving the mayors as municipalities\u2019 sole\nrepresentatives at the Region would create a logistical issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how the mayors would possibly have the\ntime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also speaking against the motion was Newmarket Mayor John\nTaylor who said he did not share Mayor Mrakas\u2019 view that the size of Regional\nCouncil was \u201cballooning\u201d, noting that only four members of Regional Council\nhave been added since the Region itself was created in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it is fair to frame us as having a\ncontinually ballooning size of Regional Council,\u201d said Mayor Taylor. \u201cIf that\nis the problem we\u2019re solving, it is not a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think having mayors-only and introducing weighted voting is a significant change. It is a bold proposal. I think that it, frankly, might be in some people\u2019s best interests or some communities\u2019, but it certainly wouldn\u2019t be in the best interests of Newmarket or the Northern Six [municipalities of York Region]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The Northern Six would go from having about 45\nper cent representation now to 25 per cent representation by vote.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not solving a ballooning Regional Council. Are we\nsolving a cost problem? We\u2019re going to save, what, $500,000 to $1 million in a\n$3 billion budget. Not to say that $500,000 to $1 million doesn\u2019t matter, but\nif you think places like Vaughan and Markham with no Regional Councillors who\nspend full time hours responding to Regional issues and residents aren\u2019t  going to need to staff up in the Mayor\u2019s\nOffice to manage all those calls that nobody else is sitting there answering\nanymore? We know from Toronto that is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talks will continue February 27 at the Regional headquarters in Newmarket. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayor Tom Mrakas\u2019 motion to reduce the size of Regional Council from its current slate of 21 members, to just a Regional Chair and York Region\u2019s nine mayors fizzled last week, but further representation for Aurora is set for further discussion later this month. If passed, Mayor Mrakas\u2019 motion would have produced a report on […]<\/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-25920","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\/p3D2k4-6K4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 12:44:48","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\/25920","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=25920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}