Chris Savard

Chris Savard
Seaway News

June 16, 2006:

As municipal voters head to the polls on Monday November 13, 2006, they will be choosing their elected Council for a new four-year term.

Buried deeply among unrelated finance measures in Bill 81, a Budget Bill, a legislative change proposed by the Liberals will result in municipal and school board elections taking place every four years instead of every three. Not a single Liberal MPP including the responsible Ministers, nor their Parliamentary Assistants mentioned this change during debate in the House.

Bill 81 received third and final reading by the Legislative Assembly on May 10, 2006 and Royal Assent on May 18, 2006. In an interesting series of events, both PC Finance Critic, Tim Hudak and NDP Finance Critic Michael Prue wrote a joint letter calling upon Premier McGuinty to deal with this item in a separate bill, to provide an opportunity for voters all across the province to have input into this Bill.

Unfortunately, that public consultation did not take place and I believe that many residents across the province are still somewhat unaware of the broad-brush changes that were passed in the last Provincial Budget.

In my nine years as a Municipal Councillor, I cannot remember a single resident calling for extended terms for their Municipal Council. This legislation is a significant change to the traditional practice of a fixed Municipal Election every three years and I am surprised that a change of this magnitude would be buried in a totally unrelated finance bill. While I wasn’t asked by the Provincial Government, I am opposed to reducing the frequency of Municipal Elections. The Municipal Council is the level of government that is the closest to the people and I believe it is imperative that local voters be provided with more frequent opportunities than less, to re-affirm the mandate given to their respective Councils.

Due to the nature of local government, it is often difficult for the voters to determine during the campaign what the collective vision of their new municipal government will be, as candidates run on individual platforms and beliefs. How those individuals come together as a team for the collective good of the community, may or may not be what the public had hoped for.

Throughout Cornwall and SD&G, community leaders are now announcing their intentions to allow their name to stand to serve on the local Council. Now more than ever, the voters will have to pay close attention during the campaigns and ensure that they get out to vote. If the community is dissatisfied with the local government they have elected, they will now have to wait one full year extra before they can make a change.

The Provincial Government should have conducted full public consultations with actual voters on such an important change to our electoral system, prior to implementation.