Attachment #4 to Report LPS120-15
Page 2
May 28, 2015
Subject: Regional Representation
The staff report can be found on the Town of Oakville website at the following link:
https://securepwa.oakville.ca/eams.
Should you have any questions regarding this matter or should you require any
additional information, please contact me at 905-845-6601, extension 2003, or email
vicki.tytaneck©oakville.ca.
Sincerely,
Vicki Tytaneck
Town Clerk
c.
Mayor Rob Burton
REPORT
COUNCIL MEETING
MEETING DATE: MAY 25, 2015
FROM:
Clerk's Department
DATE:
April 30, 2015
SUBJECT:
Regional Representation
LOCATION:
WARD:
Town wide
Page 1
RECOMMENDATION:
That staff be provided with direction regarding Council’s determination of conditions
and criteria for regional representation, without loss of current regional
representation.
KEY FACTS:
The following are key points for consideration with respect to this report:
•
The Region has requested the municipalities of Halton to provide conditions
and criteria, in addition to no loss of representation, under which changes to
regional representation would be considered.
•
In May of 2012 the Town of Oakville approved a recommendation to change
to a seven Ward system based on an increase of regional representation.
•
Regardless of regional representation, the inequities in Oakville’s current six
ward system needs to be addressed.
•
Council has in the past endorsed that effective representation and fair
representation by population can be based on representations with up to a
25 percent variance.
BACKGROUND:
Halton Region has experienced substantial growth since its formation in 1974.
Initially, Burlington had the largest population. The population distribution at that
time reflected the following regional seat distribution: Burlington had 9, Oakville 7,
Halton Hills 5 and Milton 3. During the 1990’s the population shifted resulting in the
size of Burlington and Oakville being almost equal as were Milton and Halton Hills.
A change to the regional council composition was approved in May of 1996 to reflect
this giving Oakville and Burlington 7 seats each and Milton and Halton Hills 3 seats
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From:
Date:
Subject:
Clerk's Department
April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
Page 2
each. No change has been made since. At the end of this term of Council, it will be
more than 20 years since Regional Council has changed.
In 2007, the Region established a Regional Representation Review Sub-Committee
and on March 26, 2008, the Regional Council adopted a resolution requesting that
additional research be undertaken, and acknowledging that there will be no change
in Regional representation prior to the 2014 election.
Early in 2011, Oakville staff proceeded to undertake a ward boundary review to
address the existing municipal inequities in representation and retained the services
of Dr. Robert J. Williams, the leading expert on local council representation reviews
in Ontario. In May 2012, after multiple public information sessions and a Special
Council meeting, Council approved a seven ward boundary configuration, to come
into effect when an additional seat at Halton Region is achieved.
It is important to note that prior to making their final decision regarding the seven
ward boundary configuration, Council prioritized a set of guiding principles to be
considered and prioritized them in the following order:
1.
effective representation
2.
the protection of communities of interest and neighbourhoods
3.
consideration of physical features as natural boundaries.
Other criteria also considered by Council included:
4.
representation by population
5.
future population trends.
Council also confirmed that a 25 per cent variance would also be acceptable to the
optimal population size among the wards. The 25 per cent variance is also a
standard of variation that is required by the Federal Electoral Boundaries
Readjustment Act (EBRA) and is also used by the Province.
On February 27, 2015 Region of Halton Council passed a resolution referring the
question of regional representation to the Local Councils to discover under what
conditions and criteria, in addition to no loss of representation, the Local Councils
would consider changes to regional representation. Local Councils have significant
influence over these decisions due to the “triple majority” requirement (a majority of
local Councils, a majority of Regional Councillors and a majority of the represented
Regional population must be favourable). The Region requested a response from
the Local Councils within four months.
Table 1 below outlines 2016 estimated population based on the Region’s Best
Planning Estimates. The table shows that Halton Hills will have more than twice as
many members per population as Milton. Further disparity between the
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From:
Date:
Subject:
Clerk's Department
April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
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municipalities is indicated by the variance from the average population number per
member for the Region which is 27,811. When considering the 25 per cent variance
rule, Table 1 shows Milton and Halton Hills well outside of the 25 per cent range.
Oakville’s numbers reflect very little variance from the average.
TABLE 1 - 2016 Representation by Population and Variance From Average
Pop-perVariance from
Population Council
% of
% of
Member
Average
(2016)
Members
Pop
Seats
(2016)
(100% = 27,811)
Oakville
198,205
7
28,315
35.6%
35%
101.8%
Burlington
175,438
7
25,063
31.5%
35%
90.1%
Milton
124,645
3
41,548
22.4%
15%
149.4%
Halton
57,922
3
19,307
10.4%
15%
69.4%
Hills
Halton
556,210
20
27,811
100%
100%
Table 2 further examines the variance trend from the average, by including 2016 and
2021 projections. The problem noted above regarding Milton and Halton Hills only
grows worse over time and the gap between Oakville and Burlington grows.
TABLE 2 – 2016 Representation Variance and 2021 Forecast
Variance
Variance from
Pop-per- from Avg Population Pop-per% of
% of Pop
Average
Member (2016)
Forecast Member
Seats
(2021)
(2021)
(2016)
(2021)
(2021)
(2021)
100% =
100% = 31,205
27,811
Oakville
28,315
101.8%
221,826
31,689
35.5%
35%
101.6%
Burlington 25,063
90.1%
178,847
25,550
28.7%
35%
81.9%
Milton
41,548
149.4%
161,750
53,917
25.9%
15%
172.8%
Halton
Hills
19,307
69.4%
61,672
20,557
9.9%
15%
65.9%
Halton
27,811
624,094
31,205
100%
100%
Section 218 and 219 of the Municipal Act, 2001 provide councils with the authority to
change the composition of council. Previous population growth caused the rebalancing of Regional Council 1997. Further substantial population growth
continued resulting in a Regional Council composition that is once again in need of
re-balancing. Population projections indicate that this imbalance will continue to get
worse in the coming years. Halton Regional Council does not currently conform to
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Subject:
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April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
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the equitable standard for representation by population and fair and effective
representation.
In addition to equity, the appropriate overall size and representation of Halton
Regional Council must be considered. The chart below outlines the size of other
regional council’s in the province. The average population per member is 32,329 for
the municipalities noted.
TABLE 3 Representation by Population in other Ontario Municipalities
Region
Peel
York
Durham
Niagara
Waterloo
Halton
Population
(2011 Census)
1,296,814
1,032,542
608,031
427,421
507,096
556,210 (2016 BPE)
Size of Council
(including Chair)
25
21
29
31
16
21
Population per
Member
51,873
49,167
20,967
13,788
31,694
26,486
COMMENT/OPTIONS:
The 1991 Supreme Court of Canada “Carter Decision” established an ethical base
that is used to guide representation reviews at all levels of government in Canada
and has been referenced in numerous municipal council representation studies and
Ontario Municipal Board Decisions. The Court decision maintained that electors are
entitled to “effective representation” recognizing that variances from the normal
representation by population objectives are legitimate and often necessary but at the
same time noting that representation variances should be corrected, not
perpetuated. The Court indicated that effective representation could be achieved by
"relative parity of voting power," modified where necessary to take into account
other valid factors such as geography, community history, community interest, and
minority representation. Effective representation was also identified as the number
one priority for Oakville Council in the last Ward Boundary review exercise.
The local Councils have been requested by Regional Council to determine
conditions and criteria (including no loss of representation) under which they would
consider changes to regional representation. Because the Region has required that
there be no loss of representation, the representation to population ratio of 1:19,307
in Halton Hills might be considered a base.
If the current population ratio based on Halton Hills was imposed upon the other
area municipalities, the numbers would be as reflected in the following chart
showing a significant increase in regional council size:
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April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
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TABLE 4 Fair Representation based on Halton Hills Numbers
2016
# members @
2021
Population
19,307 per
Population
Oakville
198,205
10.3 = 10
221,826
Burlington
175,438
9.1 = 9
178,847
Milton
124,645
6.5 = 7
161,750
Halton Hills
57,922
3.0 = 3
61,672
Halton
556,210
29
624,094
# members @
19,307 per
11.5 = 12
9.3 = 9
8.4 = 8
3.2 = 3
32
Although this model reflects fair representation, there would be issues with the size
of Regional Council increasing to 29 members (30 including the Chair) for the 20182022 term of Council and to 32 members (33 including the Chair) for the 2022-2026
term of Council. Factors such as an unwieldy size, increased costs, impacts on the
local municipalities to potentially increase the size of Councils or change Council
and ward structures would need to be considered.
If Oakville representation were to increase by one member to reflect a seven ward
concept and if Milton representation were to increase by two additional members to
reflect the principles of representation by population, all municipalities fall within the
25 per cent variance rule for 2016 as noted below in Table 5.
TABLE 5 Addition of 1 member for Oakville and 2 members for Milton – 2016
Pop-perVariance from
Population Council
% of
% of
Member
Average
(2016)
Members
Pop
Seats
(2016)
(100% = 24,183)
Oakville
198,205
8
24,776
35.6% 34.8%
97.6%
Burlington
175,438
7
25,063
31.5% 30.5%
96.5%
Milton
124,645
5
24,929
22.4% 21.7%
97.0%
Halton
57,922
3
19,307
10.4% 13.0%
80.0%
Hills
Halton
556,210
23
24,183
100%
100%
The addition of one member for Oakville and 2 members for Milton not only results
in fair representation for the 2016 population projections, but also for future
population trends based on 2021 estimated population figures. Municipalities
continue to fall within the 25 per cent variance rule as noted in Table 6.
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Regional Representation
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TABLE 6 Addition of 1 member for Oakville and 2 members for Milton - 2021
Pop-perVariance from
Population Council
% of
% of
Member
Average
(2021)
Members
Pop
Seats
(2021)
(100% = 27,135)
221,826
Oakville
8
27,728
35.5% 34.8%
102.2%
178,847
Burlington
7
25,550
28.7% 30.5%
94.2%
Milton
Halton
Hills
Halton
161,750
5
32,350
25.9%
21.7%
119.2%
61,672
3
20,557
9.9%
13.0%
75.76%
624,094
23
27,135
100%
100%
Another approach may be to consider weighted voting. Weighted voting is already in
place in a number of upper tier municipalities in Ontario and Canada. Instead of
adding members to Regional Council, if the Region were to move to weighted
voting, the increased representation would not come in the form of additional bodies
on Regional Council, rather it would be replaced by additional votes as shown in the
table below:
TABLE 7 Weighted Votes Based on the Halton Hills Population per Member
2016
# votes @
2021
# votes @
Population
19,307 per
Population
19,307 per
member
member
Oakville
198,205
10.3 = 10
11.5 = 12
221,826
Burlington
175,438
9.1 = 9
9.3 = 9
178,847
Milton
124,645
6.5 = 7
8.4 = 8
161,750
Halton Hills
57,922
3.0 = 3
3.2 = 3
61,672
Halton
556,210
29 (30 incl.
32 (33 incl.
624,094
Chair)
Chair)
Weighted voting, without balancing the number of members would not cure
problems associated with unbalanced representation such as access to elected
representatives by citizens, Councillor workloads, and imbalanced cost per
municipal representative but gives all municipalities vote equality. It is a complex
system that may not be transparent to the public. However, it could be considered
as a stop gap measure to ensure fair representation is in place for the start of the
2018 term of Council. This would provide more time should the Region wish to
undertake a comprehensive review.
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Date:
Subject:
Clerk's Department
April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
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In response to the motion from Regional Council and the approved seven ward
boundary configuration to come into effect when an additional seat at Halton Region
is achieved, Oakville Council may wish to consider recommending one of the
following options:
A.
B.
That the Regional Council be requested to increase regional representation
to include one additional member for Oakville and 2 members for Milton,
based on the 2016 and 2021 population forecast which shows all
municipalities falling with the 25 per cent variance rule and is also in keeping
with the past decision of Oakville Town Council to move to seven wards;
and/or
Direct staff to revisit the ward boundaries to address the current inequities in
representation within Oakville in keeping with future Regional decisions on
regional representation that were not considered in 2012.
Alternately Council may wish to consider the following options:
C.
D.
E.
That Regional Council review Regional Council composition to adjust the
number of Regional Councillors to reflect fair representation by population
based on the 2016 Halton Hills’ representation by population ratio of 19,307
per member. (Table 4)
That Regional Council review Regional Council composition to adjust the
number of Regional Councillors to reflect representation based on a larger
population per member ratio contrary to the “no loss of representation”
clause.
That Regional Council review Regional Council voting options to
accommodate a weighted voting system.
In order for any change to take effect for the next regular election, changes to
Council composition must be finalized by December 31 of the year prior to the
election. Therefore, in order to be in effect for the October 2018 election, changes
to the Regional Council, local Councils and ward boundaries must be completed by
December 31, 2017. Approval of regional representation changes requires
satisfaction of the “triple Majority” criteria as noted in section 218 and 219 of the
Municipal Act, 2001 which means that a majority of Regional Council plus a majority
of the lower-tier councils (3 of 4) that also represent a majority of all the electors in
the Region, must support the proposed changes.
CONSIDERATIONS:
(A) PUBLIC
The public would be notified of any potential changes to Council size or
structure as part of the public consultation process.
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April 30, 2015
Regional Representation
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(B) FINANCIAL
Any costs associated with a ward boundary review are allocated from the
election reserve.
(C) IMPACT ON OTHER DEPARTMENTS & USERS
Impacts to other departments and users will be dependent upon direction
related to regional representation and/or ward boundaries.
(D) CORPORATE AND/OR DEPARTMENT STRATEGIC GOALS
This report addresses the corporate strategic goal to:
• continuously improve our programs and services
• provide outstanding service to our residents and businesses
• be accountable
• be the most livable town in Canada
(E) COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY
Council representation affects all four pillars of sustainability.
Prepared and submitted by:
Vicki Tytaneck, Town Clerk