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LETTER: A smaller city council wouldn't be a good idea

A spokesperson for Democracy Guelph feels that a move to single councillor wards would be a 'terrible loss'
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GuelphToday received the following letter from Kevin Bowman, spokesperson for Democracy Guelph regarding City Council changes:

The City of Guelph is considering significant changes to the City Council for the first time in 30+ years! This Council Review is a bit overdue...Guelph is a very different place than 30 years ago. In 1996 the population was about 96,000.

Twenty years later in 2016 it had ballooned to 130,000 and we are mandated by the Province to blow through 150,000 within the next five years. This and many other changes have increased the needs of the community that the Council must meet. Therefore any reduction in the capacity of Council would be ill advised!

The first phase of the Council Review will consider some very important questions:

  • What is the appropriate total number of councillors?
  • Should councillors be elected by ward or city-wide? Or some hybrid of the two?
  • Should councillors remain part-time or become full-time?

One of the changes being considered in the Council Review is a move to single councillor wards. This would be a terrible loss! Let’s keep multiple councillors per ward.

Visit www.haveyoursay.guelph.ca and click on “Council Composition and Ward Boundary Review” to complete the survey.

Participate in the Virtual Town Hall meeting on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. Email your Councillor and the Mayor and tell them you want to keep multiple councillors per ward!

Currently councillors are elected two per ward. There are many advantages to having multiple councillors per ward. If one councillor is incapacitated the other is still available. Or if a resident does not get along well with one councillor they can deal with the other one.

Suppose you lived in a ward with only one councillor and the person elected turned out to be terrible. Too bad! You are stuck with them for at least 4 years! Let’s not go down that road.

Kevin Bowman
Spokesperson for Democracy Guelph
123Guelph