By Pepper Parr
December 3, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Region of Halton did there Swearing In this morning; they had three new faces. Regional Chair Gary Carr kept his job – he was the best candidate.
Burlington which has seven seats on Regional Council, sent the same gang back to the Regional arena; Goldring, Craven, Meed Ward, Taylor Dennison, Sharman and Lancaster will warm the seats
Halton Hills did the same thing; they returned Mayor Rick Bonnette and Councillors Clark Somerville and Jane Fogal.
The Town of Milton has three Regional Council seats and returned Mayor Gordon Krantz, Councillor Mike Cluett, a new member of the Milton council and Colin Best.
The Town of Oakville has seven Regional seats and they returned newly elected Sean O’Meara and Dave Gittings along with Mayor Rob Burton, Cathy Duddeck, Allan Elgar, Jeff Knoll and Tom Adams.
During this term of Regional Council there will “likely be a review” of the municipal representation at Regional Council. Milton is badly under represented and will want additional representation.
While there is as yet no known schedule in place as to when the changes in Regional Council seats might be made – they won’t come into effect until the 2018 election.
What could this mean to Burlington where every council member is also a member of the Regional Council – and half of their pay cheque comes from the Region?
Could Burlington end up with fewer regional seats? That would mean a realignment of the six wards we now have if the policy were to have every member of council also a regional Councillors is maintained.
If Burlington went to a practice of having some members of council not be members of Regional council that would mean a 50% cut in pay. Who would run for a council seat for basically $50,000 a year? And what would the voters get in terms of quality representation for that kind of money.
It’s a question that will get raised at the Regional level during this term of office. Milton is going to want better representation.
