Gravenhurst council passed a motion to recommend a ward boundary review be done during the next term of council.
Councillor Heidi Lorenz was behind the motion that was discussed at last week’s Committee of the Whole.
The last time a review was done was in preparation for the 2010 municipal election. “Since that time, the community of Gravenhurst has grown both in population as well as public and private assets,” the motion submitted by Lorenz reads.
The idea of the review is to “consider effective representation including geography, community interests, and reasonable population projections.”
“It is the responsible thing to do,” Lorenz told council, noting that – if the review is done – it will have been nearly two decades since the last one. She says that boundaries need to be looked at every so often to take into account growth that might have happened in the years since. She noted that this motion is not a commitment to have this done, just a suggestion.
Kayla Thibadelt, Clerk, pointed out the possibility of doing this before the 2022 municipal election was brought up, but they don’t have enough time. She said the boundary review process takes a year to a year and a half.
If approved, council would put out a request for proposals to find a vendor to undertake the review and analyze the demographics and future development in the area before coming back to council with a recommendation. “Ward boundary reviews can in fact say stay with the status quo, more wards or less wards or sometimes it can be no wards,” Thibadeult said. “Municipalities aren’t necessarily required to have wards.”
She said there are “endless” options that could come forward.
Lorenz noted the growth happening in ward one in the south end on James Street and on Pine Street and Wellington Street in ward five. “The whole picture has to be looked at,” she said.
“I think this is a little premature,” Councillor Jo Morphy said. Ahead of last week’s council meeting, she checked in with staff to get the exact numbers on the growth the area has seen since the last boundary review.
Between 2011 to 2016, 246 people moved to the area, according to what staff told Morphy, and the future estimate from 2016 to 2022 is that Gravenhurst will grow by 625 people. “I think we have a lot of development coming,” she added, saying she believes council should wait for those projects to play out before moving forward with a review.
“I like the idea,” Morphy said. I think it needs to be done, but I don’t like making decisions for a future council.”
Lorenz reiterated that this is merely a suggestion, not a requirement. “People don’t necessarily think there should be nine of us,” she claimed but added the next council might think this isn’t important and not move forward with it. “We’re not committing to spending any more,” she said.
The motion was passed seven to two with Morphy and Councillor Terry Pilger as the only dissenting votes.