{"id":26890,"date":"2020-07-02T19:23:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T23:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26890"},"modified":"2020-07-09T19:55:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T23:55:20","slug":"six-ward-council-system-coming-to-aurora-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/six-ward-council-system-coming-to-aurora-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-Ward Council system coming to Aurora in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A significant shake-up is coming to local government in\ntime for the next municipal election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week formally approved measures that will\nreplace the current \u201cat large\u201d system of government in 2022 in favour of six\nelectoral wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presently, Aurorans vote for a Mayor and up to six\nCouncillors to represent the community as a whole. In the new model, which was\napproved on a 4 \u2013 3 vote on June 23, residents will still be able to elect a\nMayor to represent the entire community but will be tasked with selecting a\nsingle Council candidate to represent their neighbourhood\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs our community grows and the demographics change, we\nneed to look at how we can provide the best possible governance for all\nAurorans,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas, speaking in favour of the motion to adopt the\nSix-Ward model. \u201cI believe we will see a more diverse field of candidates as\nwell as representation from all areas of our Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis change is about better governance, better\nengagement with our community from our Councillors. This will lead to a more\ninformed and a more engaged community\u2026which will make our Town even better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The themes of better engagement from residents and\nCouncil members alike were embraced by Councillors Harold Kim, Sandra Humfryes\nand Michael Thompson, who joined Mayor Mrakas in voting in favour of the new\nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those voting against the ward system, it was a matter\nof public engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillors Wendy Gaertner, John Gallo and Rachel\nGilliland each expressed concerns there wasn\u2019t a fulsome buy-in from members of\nthe public while citing results from a 2014 referendum held in conjunction with\nthat year\u2019s municipal election which saw voters give the thumbs-up to a reduced\nnumber of Councillors but a thumbs-down to a ward system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn very big issues that effect everyone, I think it is\nincumbent upon us to reach out to the residents,\u201d said Councillor Gallo. \u201cI\nwould be in favour of sending the [Six-Ward proposal] back to staff and asking\nthem, \u2018How do we implement a mid-term referendum?\u2019 in order to gauge the\ncommunity. It is an error making this decision without properly engaging the\npublic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the public had the opportunity to speak out\nfor or against a ward system at the start of last Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident Rebecca Beaton was the only resident to do so,\nconnecting to the virtual Council meeting via telephone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVoters voted against the ward system and yet\nsubsequently a committee was formed, a consulting firm was hired and $100,000\nwas spent on this issue,\u201d said Ms. Beaton, asking each Council member to\nexplain their position \u201cin 30 seconds or less\u2026why you are even considering this\nif a majority of residents said no?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the decision now made, however, the Six-Ward\nconfiguration, as adopted, will divide Aurora into electoral districts in a\nmodel designed to maintain voter parity for more than a decade to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 1, barring any later tweaks, will be bordered by the\nrailroad tracks in the east, Orchard Heights Boulevard in the south, Bathurst\nStreet in the west, and the Town\u2019s boundary with Newmarket in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orchard Heights will be the northern boundary of Ward 2,\nwith Yonge Street at the easternmost edge, Kennedy Street West in the south,\nand Bathurst in the west. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bathurst, Kennedy Street West, and Yonge will form the\nwest, north and east edge of Ward 3, with the railway line as the southern\nmarker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest ward by area will be Ward 4, which is bounded\nat the south by Bloomington Road, to the west by the railway tracks, Wellington\nStreet East in the north and Highway 404 in the east. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s fastest growing communities in the northeast\nwill be divided in two by Mavrinac Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the west side of Mavrinac will be Ward 5, which is\nbordered by St. John\u2019s Sideroad in the north, the rail line in the west, and\nWellington in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward Six will include the entire northeast quadrant of\nMavrinac and Wellington Street West up to the boundary with Newmarket in the\nnorth and Highway 404 in the east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe recommendation is based on projected populations for\nthe Town, an objective analysis of the ward boundary options for Aurora and two\nrounds of public engagement,\u201d said consultants in their final report to\nCouncil. \u201cAlong with the expertise of the Consultant Team, Round 1 informed the\ndevelopment of four options for a new ward system and Round 2 informed the\nselection of the preferred option and its ward boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the projected populations, the recommended ward alignment should serve Aurora for three and possibly four municipal elections \u2013 2022, 2026, 2030, and perhaps 2034. The recommended ward configuration achieves effective representation and is based on principles established by the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal and the Courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A significant shake-up is coming to local government in time for the next municipal election. Council last week formally approved measures that will replace the current \u201cat large\u201d system of government in 2022 in favour of six electoral wards. Presently, Aurorans vote for a Mayor and up to six Councillors to represent the community as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26890","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\/p3D2k4-6ZI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 09:24:10","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\/26890","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=26890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}