October 5th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The population growth the City is expected to experience calls for a hard look at the ward boundaries and deciding if the number of wards (currently six) is the right number and what any change to the Regional government is going to have on the composition of City Council.
A review of the composition of Burlington City Council and the city’s ward boundaries is set to begin. The review will assess how well the current council size and structure, and ward boundaries work for our community.
All residents and Burlington business owners are invited to share their input through a series of upcoming public engagements starting next week.
Public engagement and Council decisions
Public engagement and Council decisions will happen in two phases for the review.
Phase one, residents will be asked for their input on council composition. Input gathered from the community will be used to help inform a report that will go to City Council for their consideration in December 2024.
Phase two, public engagement will focus on ward boundaries. This phase is anticipated to start early in 2025.
Council composition public engagement opportunities
Monday, Oct. 7 – 9:30 a.m., presentation at Committee of the Whole, Council Chambers, 426 Brant St.
Monday, Oct. 7 – 7 to 8:30 p.m., Tansley Woods Community Centre, 1996 Itabashi Way
Wednesday, Oct. 9 – 7 to 8:30 p.m., Central Arena, 519 Drury Ln
Thursday, Oct. 10 – 1:30 to 3 p.m., Mountainside Recreation Centre, 2205 Mt. Forest Dr.
Tuesday, Oct. 15 – 7 to 8:30 p.m., virtual public meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 23 – 7 to 8:30 p.m., Haber Community Centre, 3040 Tim Dobbie Dr.
Residents and business owners can also share their feedback through the council composition and ward boundary survey, available on getinvolvedburlington.ca/boundaryreview – starting Oct.7.
There are a number of questions raised in the report that Council will debate on Tuesday:
How does the present electoral arrangement for the City of Burlington measure up?
Do the current wards deliver fair representation, conducive to good governance?
What are the goals of a Ward Boundary Review?
Is the principle that all local councillors are also regional councillors still right for the City?
What information does Council need to make an informed decision?
Why Undertake the Review?
Prepare Council to consider and discuss whether to maintain the existing council composition and ward boundaries or pursue an alternative arrangement.
Fair Representation
Reviewing electoral arrangements can help ensure equal representation and give communities an equitable voice in decision-making processes.
Consider Population and Demographic Changes
A review can align boundaries, reflect population shifts, and better serve evolving community distribution and interests.
Improve Democracy
An independent review promotes transparency and accountability, bolstering trust in the democratic system, and increasing civic engagement.
Jim pointed out that I grabbed the wrong numbers from the report for the population by ward. I picked up the to be numbers from the last page, they are “for discussion purposes only” after ward maps have been redrawn and not the current numbers. The current numbers, before any changes to the ward map, are on page 10 and have been copied here (thanks Jim).
Table 1. 2021 Census Populations by Ward
Ward Population as per 2021 census Variance
1 28,542 – 8.4%
2 26,945 -13.5%
3 23,497 -24.6%
4 36,441 17.0%
5 36,049 15.7%
6 35,474 13.9%
Total: 186,948
The fact that the consultants report, being presented today, only includes the option of changing ward boundaries is further evidence that council has already decided not to add any new members.
Blair – all the numbers are from the same report
https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=81901
The average shown in the Gazette article – 26,707 – includes the mayor in the calculation (186,948 / 7). The average in my comment above – 31,158 – is the average across the 6 wards (186,948 / 6).
I think that Eric makes a good point. If the City truly wished citizens to be informed and to participate in this exercise, then they would have given early warning that the review was ‘in play’ and would provide information as it was developed. An avalanche of data at the last moment with insufficient time to review and absorb seems to be a deliberate and practiced tactic. I know that the Mayor has said on a number of occasions that she would entertain a reconsideration of ward boundaries and Council composition but ‘entertaining’ and putting the exercise in motion are really two different things. Fundamentally, Burlington has little in the way of independent media and so the City gets to shape the message because it has control over the main public communications channels. The degree of isolation from true engagement exhibited by this Council is truly shocking and very cynical.
As an aside, why is there a substantial difference between the ward population numbers displayed in the graphic and those provided by Eric? Are they not both from 2021?
Just as adding more clowns doesn’t make for a better circus, adding more councillors wont necessarily make for a better city. Aside from that the workload required to support an average citizen base of 31,158 gets my vote. Then there is the fact that adding more council members may result in an improved democratic outcome.
Here is the population data by ward (2021) that Jim is referring to. I think it’s difficult for any one of us to keep up with the huge volume of information coming from city hall, making it a failure not to share the information when you have it but, thankfully, we are all different.
2021 Population by ward
Ward 1 32,595
Ward 2 31,671
Ward 3 32,703
Ward 4 31,543
Ward 5 29,285
Ward 6 29,151
Total 186,948
Average 31,158
The COB needs to provide Data on this. One size fits all isn’t relevant here. Residents need to know the population of each of the 6 Wards individually in order to make an educated decision on whether or not they agree with these suggested changes.
After all, it’s the Burlington Residents and Businesses who will have to pay for their additional Salaries, Benefits and Pensions etc. through their Property Tax dollars.
We may not need any?? Or maybe we just need an additional one or 2 Councilors instead of doubling the entire Council to 12.
When will our Mayor and Council reveal and provide us with these important figures??? Plus all of the associated Costs??