After rejecting a push to shrink the size of Council in November, Thorold City Council has passed a motion asking the province to shrink the number of Councillors from eight to six, as was proposed by former regional chair Bob Gale shortly before his resignation earlier this month.
In a report last November, city staff noted that Thorold presently has one councillor representing roughly 3,000 residents, which is below the average in Niagara Region of one councillor representing roughly 4,700 residents.
In that same report, staff noted that if the number of councillors in Thorold was reduced from eight to six, each councillor would represent roughly 4,000 residents, which would still fall well below the regional average.
Before the staff report was presented, a survey was sent out to Thorold residents to see how they’d feel about changes to the size of Council. Responses were roughly evenly divided, with 44 per cent saying Thorold had too many politicians, compared to 43 per cent who said Council was just right.
Following staff’s report, Council voted unanimously to keep the size of Council as-is.
However, since then, things have changed. Premier Doug Ford has clearly indicated that he thinks Niagara Region has too many politicians, and, although Gale is no longer regional chair, the Ford government still appears to want to pursue his fewer politicians agenda.
Last week, Councillor Ken Sentence introduced a motion at Council to reduce the number of seats from eight to six. Council ultimately voted eight to one in favour of Sentence’s motion, which calls on the province to reduce the size of Thorold City Council.
Normally, municipalities can change council size on their own. But, because it is well into an election year, this change would have to be ratified by the province and that would have to happen before the beginning of the writ period, which starts in May.
In a media release following the vote, Mayor Terry Ugulini called on the province to act.
“We agree with the Province that the status quo isn’t good enough for taxpayers,” said Ugulini. “Several Niagara municipalities have now heeded that call, made the difficult decisions, and reduced the size of their own Councils. Our communities want an efficient government that respects local identity and delivers real value.”
“We’re doing our part, and we’re confident the Province will do theirs.”
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
