It appears that Wallaceburg and Chatham’s borders won’t be changing.
Wallaceburg Coun. Carmen McGregor entered a motion for staff to create a by-law to change Wallaceburg’s and Chatham’s ward boundaries, but the motion failed.
McGregor had requested an information report back in May, which was on the council agenda Monday night.
Maps accompanied the report, which outlined the existing ward boundaries and the potential modifications.
The staff report indicated the existing ward boundary in Wallaceburg is “still fairly consistent” with the ‘Wallaceburg Urban Boundary’ as depicted in the official plan.
Four exceptions included:
– The area to the south along Highway 40;
– The area to the north along Nelson Street;
– The parcel along Dufferin Avenue on the west side containing the Fairfield Park Nursing
Home
– The area along the east side between McCreary Line and North River Line, containing a
mix of uses
Overall the population in Wallaceburg would have see an increase of 180 people, or 36 households.
The report also included some proposed changes to the urban boundaries of the city of Chatham.
These changes would have resulted in 1,694 additional people, or 774 households, in Chatham.
It would have led to 1,058 less people, or 381 households, in North Kent; and 816 less people, or 429 households, in South Kent.
“It should be noted that the proposed ward boundary changes would create more of a gap in the representation by population system,” said Judy Smith, municipal clerk, in her report. “It would be increasing the size of the larger communities within the municipality, resulting in less representation per person in those wards.”
Smith added: “Representation by population is a concept where each elected member represents approximately the same number of citizens. Under this system, the higher the population of a ward, the larger the number of seats allocated to that ward would be. Essentially, it relates to the basic democratic principle of ‘one person, one vote’ and that all votes should count equally.”
Smith said in her report that in Wards 4 and 5, the newly proposed % of population and ratio of population to representative supported representation by population.
“It decreases the population in Ward 4 and increases the population in Ward 5 therefore making the % of population more comparable,” she said.
“However, if the proposed ward boundaries are changed between Wards 2, 4 and 6, the representation by population method is not supported as it decreases the % of population in Ward 2 and increases the percentage in Ward 6. If Council wishes to make the change for Ward 6 then this can be supported by following a ‘committees of interest’ principle as opposed to the representation by population principle.”
Smith said in her report in order to have comparable representation Ward 6 could increase by two council members to make the representation more comparable across the board or, alternatively, decrease in the number of councillors in other wards.
Watch for more on this story.
– Photo: Council hand-out
