There will be three more politicians seated in Toronto’s council chamber after the 2018 election.
In a decision released today, the Ontario Municipal Board agreed with a city council approved redrawing of
ward boundaries, increasing the number of wards to 47 from 44.
The new boundaries would see four new wards created — three downtown and one in the North York neighbourhood of Willowdale. It would see one ward in the western part of downtown removed. Seven wards would see no boundary changes at all.
The OMB ruling came after two city councillors and several citizens
appealed council’s 2016 decision to approve the 47-ward option recommended by third-party consultants.
The OMB was on the clock, with the city requesting the decision come no later than Dec. 31 to give the city clerk time prepare for the election.
At a more than week-long hearing in front of a three-member panel on the 16th floor of the OMB’s Bay St. office, those participating argued over the fate of how the city would be represented.
Bruce Engell, the Toronto lawyer representing Ward 5 (Etobicoke Lakeshore) Councillor Justin Di Ciano, built a case around concerns about the methodology used by the consultants and argued the board should impose a 25-ward structure also considered by council.
The city’s lawyer Brendan O’Callaghan said the board should not overturn a decision of council that took the advice of independent consultants after a multi-year review.
The city launched a review of ward boundaries in 2014, after the existing structure was challenged at the OMB.
The populations of the current wards are becoming increasingly unbalanced as growth is seen in urban centres and other pockets, the city-hired consultants found.
The aim in restructuring ward boundaries is to balance populations sizes across wards to achieve voter parity — a Supreme Court of Canada-backed principle that every residents vote should have equal weight.
The consultant’s 47-ward option looked to achieve that parity by 2026, with improvements towards that goal made in each election cycle based on population projections.
The position of the consultants, who presented their work to the board on behalf of the city, was that imposing 25 wards that followed federal riding boundaries would still create problems of voter parity while separating important neighbourhoods of interest.
The decision on Toronto’s ward boundaries comes just after the OMB
rejected the plan approved by Hamilton’s council to make only minor changes to their own wards.
That council decision, the Hamilton Spectator reported, did not follow the advice from third-party consultants who presented options to rebalance Hamilton’s ward populations, leaving some councillors and concerned citizens accusing the majority of council of gerrymandering.
