Guelph should know by the end of next year if there will be a change to ward boundaries and in the number of city councillors.
The city is spending $230,000 for the consulting firm Watson and Associates Economists Ltd. to review ward boundaries, council composition, whether or not councillors should be full time.
It could result in full-time councillors and new ward boundaries and perhaps even wards. It could also result in a change in how council is elected.
The project will be done in three phases:
(1) Council composition and employment status review Phase
(2) Ward boundary review
(3) Voting systems and methods review
"The project may lead to a change in the number of Councillors on City Council, the number of Councillors elected per ward and/or the number and size of wards," says a city update on the project.
In order to have a revised council composition and ward boundaries in place for the 2022, the city wants those two elements completed by the end of 2020. That would leave a year for any potential appeals to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) to be decided on, allowing for the changes to be in place for the 2022 municipal election.
A report outlining the results of the council composition and employment status review will be brought forward to city council at a special council meeting in the second quarter of 2020.
A staff report outlining the results of the ward boundary review will be brought to city council at a second special council meeting in the fourth quarter of 2020.
There will be community engagement events planned for both phases.
Phase three – the voting systems and methods review — will start with community engagement in the second half of 2020 and cumulate with final report in early 2021.
"That report will include a staff recommendation regarding the use of voting systems (first-past-the-post or ranked balloting for City Council offices) and methods (tabulators, internet voting, vote-by-mail and/or telephone voting)," says the report.
