Tuesday night was the first of three public consultation meetings being held this week on the town's Ward Boundary Review.
The review is being conducted to review the town's current council composition and ward boundaries. The objective of the review is to ensure fair and equitable representation of the residents at town council.
The meetings are a way to engage residents and keep them up to date on the process of preliminary ward boundary options.
The goal is to have the new ward boundaries established in time for the next municipal election in 2022 and would be in effect until 2031.
Bradford's current estimated population is 42,740, with town council consisting of one mayor, one deputy mayor, and seven ward councillors.
The average number of residents per ward is 6,106. Ward 1 which covers the southwest corner of Bradford has the highest population at 9.950. Ward 3 which covers the southern portion of town and includes the Holland Marsh has the smallest population at 3,580.
The town has experienced growth of around 50 percent since the current wards were established in 2009, "a significant change in a short time," noted Dr. Robert J. Williams who is working with the consultant team at Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. to complete the evaluation of the town's existing electoral structure.
The population is moving in a direction that won't self-correct because projections indicate the town's population could be over 50,000 people by 2031 and the population disparities will likely worsen in the next three election cycles, said Williams.
Williams noted unique identities within pockets of the town such as The Holland Marsh, that need to be acknowledged in the review.
"We'd like to see Wards of about 6,100 people," said Williams. But in 2031, that number will grow to about 7,214.
As it stands, the wards do not provide effective representation based on some of the guiding principles identified by the consultants:
- Effective representation
- Representation by population
- Representation of communities of interest
- Population and electoral trends
- Geographical and topographical features as boundaries
The group has developed some preliminary alternatives to redivide the town, taking into account quantitative and qualitative data, case law, and successful models adopted in other municipalities.
Over the next few weeks, the consultants will take feedback from residents, analyze it, and come back to council with recommendations of size, composition, and ward boundaries.
The consultants have come up with six design options that were shared in the public meeting on Tuesday.
Option 1: This is a 'minimal disruption' option, similar to the current ward boundary with five urban wards and two rural wards, and provides familiarity to residents. Wards 1, 3, 4, and 6 would be outside of the optimal range of variance and effective representation is hindered by uneven population distribution in 2021 that is expected to worsen over time. Ward 3 would be much smaller in population.
Option 1-B: This is similar to Option 1 with a 'minimal disruption' kept at five urban wards and two rural wards. Ward 1 being the larges ward and adjustments made to Ward 4. Ward 4 would encompass the northwest side of town with Line 8 as the north boundary and spilling over County Road 88 to the south into the current Ward 1 area. The movement of the boundary line would decrease Ward 1's population by approximately 1,300.
"Having a ward crossover and keeping commercial areas in the same ward is a reasonable trade-off," said Williams, noting it would include the Reagen's Industrial Parkway area.
Option 2: This option offers a different look from the current system. It would still consist of five urban wards and two rural, with a different configuration for the urban wards. Wards 4 and 6 would encompass the northern fringe of the urban areas, with Wards 3 and 5 focusing on the rural to the north and south of town.
Option 2B: This option has five urban wards and two rural. It has the same rural configuration with different urban configurations, and an adjusted Ward 4 to equalize the population. It moves the boundary between Wards 1 and 4 south to Miller Park Avenue, west of West Park Avenue, providing better population balance between the two wards and bringing both closer to the ward optimum population.
Option 3: This option would have six urban wards and one rural.
"We are trying to recognize some of the things like how population settles and how it grows. BWG is urbanizing at a quick rate, about 90 per cent of the population is in urban boundaries and expected to increase as Bond Head develops," noted consultant Jack Ammendolia.
Williams justified the reasons for downsizing the rural wards down to one.
"This is not the BWG created at amalgamation," said Williams. "It's down to one ward out of the seven and that's a huge transition from the way the municipality was originally understood. The goal here is to try and address that disparity among the wards by reducing the one."
Option 4: This option adds one more ward for a total of six urban and two rural. Consultants noted there may be some concerns with having an even number of elected officials when it comes to voting at council meetings. They suggested the option of eliminating the at-large deputy mayor position and having one councillor elected to be the deputy mayor.
Williams noted that New Tecumseth has a 10 member council, as do many other municipalities, but pointed out that not every councillor votes at council meetings either due to conflicts of interest, or absences.
After the options were presented, the group took questions from the public.
So what happens next?
The goal of the exercise is to narrow down the options to two or three and present them to council before June, who will then determine the size of council, how many members of council are elected and divide, redivide or dissolve existing wards.
The town and consultants urge all residents to take part in the ward boundary review.
There are many ways to get involved, including the online survey.
"If you only have time to do one thing, please fill out the survey, it's where we get good, consistent feedback we can analyze," noted Ammendolia.
Residents are also invited to take part in the public consultation meetings.
Thursday, April 29 from 3 - 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 29 from 7 - 8:30 p.m.
For more information, visit here.
