A narrow path

Mayor Robert Quaiff’s proposal to reduce the size of council is a dexterous bit of tightrope balancing. He has carefully avoided the missteps that have sent other plans hurtling into the abyss.

Tomorrow morning council will gather to consider a plan that would condense 10 existing electoral districts into two—each electing five representatives. Quaiff’s plan would see Picton, Hallowell, Athol, North and South Marysburgh combine to form an electoral ward. Wellington, Hillier, Ameliasburgh and Sophiasburgh would form the second electoral ward. His plan avoids the messy, and likely politically impossible, prospect of redrawing the County’s historic ward boundaries. For all purposes other than electing council representatives, the wards, under Quaiff’s plan, would keep their distinct communities intact and unchanged.

The mayor’s proposal also avoids the inequity presented by the fact that some County residents have three elected representatives (Ameliasburgh) and others have just one. (South Marysburgh, for example). Hillier has 2,431 residents, but just one council member. Sophiasburgh has just 350 more, yet enjoys two votes at council.

Perhaps most importantly Quaiff’s plan builds on the work done by the Citizens” Assembly in 2013. That summer, the County hired Queen’s University political science professor Jonathan Rose to assemble 24 county residents, chosen randomly and balanced for gender and geography, to sit over three Saturdays to consider the issue of whether council ought to be restructured. And if so, how. One participant dropped out before deliberations began.

It was a bold experiment. One issue. 23 County residents. Three long days. The group became educated on the issues as well as the historical and legal context. They listened to presentations. They heard compelling arguments for a range of solutions. Then they made their recommendation.

The Citizens’ Assembly recommended that council be reduced to 10 members plus a mayor. There were five dissenting opinions— several of whom chose to restate their opposition at council.

But alas, council could not bring itself to make the change. Some complained, without irony, that despite debating this issue on and off for the previous eight years, they felt rushed into making a decision.

The issue arose at the doorstep in the last municipal election. Voters wanted to know why, after being asked for their view in the 2010 election and voting overwhelmingly to review the size of council, that it wasn’t yet done.

Several successful candidates vowed to complete the job—once and for all—if elected.

So here we are again.

Others have made competing proposals. Hillier resident Gary Mooney is promoting a three-ward arrangement that also avoids redrawing ward boundaries. But his plan fails to meet the Citizens’ Assembly recommendation of a 10 councillors plus a mayor. It also would also produce an even numbered council—a recipe for lingering deadlock. After more than a decade of inaction on this very issue—council should be eager for a decision-making system that delivers clear and unequivocal direction.

Bloomfield resident Dick Prinzen proposes four wards—Ameliasburgh, Hiller and Sophiasburgh; Hallowell, Athol, North and South Marsyburgh; Wellington and Bloomfield; and Picton.

Prinzen’s plan groups electoral districts based on natural affinity and traditional connections. But it suffers from unequal representation—residents in one ward would have four representatives, another would have just one vote on council.

Quaiff’s plan isn’t without its challenges. A two-ward arrangement barely avoids the problems inherent in an at-large system, wherein councillors are elected by all County voters, as the mayor is now. Large electoral districts tend to favour candidates with the resources to campaign across the region. Reaching the 600 voters in Bloomfield is a different prospect than making connections with 12,000 residents in a reworked electoral ward. Candidates may also tend to favour voterich urban areas rather than slogging down thinly populated rural roads. There is , finally, the unhealthy symbolism of a line drawn between north and south— the County’s own Mason-Dixon line.

These and other issues are likely to be seized upon by those determined to resist change—those who refuse to acknowledge the clearly expressed will of the people in response to the ballot question in 2010.

Council has dithered on this issue for far too long. After eight years of deadlock, council asked voters what it should do. They answered. Five years on and it’s still unresolved. It’s embarrassing.

Mayor Quaiff’s plan isn’t perfect—but it is a workable compromise. In politics, as in much else in life, it is as good as it is likely to get.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca