Consultants digging into Oshawa’s ward history

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

The City of Oshawa has grown and changed in a multitude of ways since its previous ward boundaries divided the 2005 municipality into seven distinct segments, and while those lines will not be the ones to divie up the city this time, they may provide some valuable hints.

“I see them as a bit of a clue as to the way people have understood the city in the past,” says Dr. Robert William, the man who, along with the firm of Watson and Associates, has been tasked with recreating a ward system for Oshawa.

“Putting on the new population numbers and other developments, those may no longer make much sense, but it’s a bit of a flavour for the way the city has worked.”

For Williams, who has been involved with more than 20 ward reviews across Ontario, Oshawa’s situation is slightly unique. Not only are the consultants creating brand new boundaries practically from scratch, but they also have the region’s composition change to deal with.

“This makes it a new scenario to be able to deal with both levels at once,” he says.

Currently, reviewers are in the process of gathering background information and setting up interviews with the mayor and councillors in order to get their preliminary views on the matter. The first round of public consultations are slated for November.

Top of mind for Williams is for council to figure out how many regional councillors the city is going to keep in their council chambers.

If the regional composition bylaw is approved, Oshawa will be losing two councillors at the regional table, which has several repurcussions.

First, it eliminates the possibility of returning to the seven-ward system. Having only five regional councillors means there would not be equal representation across each ward as two would be left without a regional rep. It also means that Oshawa council must figure out what they will do with those two previous regional seats. Options could range from switching them to city council seats (leaving five city councillors and five regional in the Oshawa chambers) or eliminate them all together.

Williams says this is a decision that must be made soon, and could lead to some issues if Oshawa has no desire to change, as it would lead to five regional councillors and three city councillors.

Based on regulations described in the Municipal Act, any ward system must have effective and equitable representation across all wards and provide an accurate reflection of the communities in the city. If any of these are questioned, an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board would not only stall the city’s approval of a new system, but could mean having to start all over.

“That remains a sticking point,” Williams says.

“(If it) is not clearly resolved, then it will be a bigger challenge then it might otherwise be, just because you’ve got to juggle these two numbers that don’t really compute.”

A final recommendation on a ward system is due from the consultants in the spring of 2017.