Ontario Municipal Board Ruling Maintains Five Wards in City of Vaughan
Nov. 4, 2013
In response to a private citizen appeal, relating to the City of Vaughan’s decision to not implement a petition to create an additional ward, the Ontario Municipal Board has ruled that the City of Vaughan should maintain its current five-ward structure. In its decision, the Board concluded that it had not seen clear and compelling reasons to create a sixth ward.
The Board indicated that there is a better population balance in the existing five-ward system than what was proposed in the petition. The Board agreed that Council’s decision to conduct a broad-based review in advance of the 2018 election is more than adequate because the current system protects current and emerging communities and protects relative voter parity that is the foundation of effective representation.
The City recognizes that ward boundaries should be reviewed periodically. The key objective is to ensure that the populations in each ward are balanced within an acceptable range, and that the resulting wards make sense in terms of the communities they serve, physical and natural boundaries, the history of Vaughan’s wards, and other relevant considerations.
A Ward Boundary Review is an important and complex task that includes an extensive public consultation process. The City has committed to conducting a thorough review in advance of the 2018 municipal election to allow for broad public consultation, the collection of independent evidence on population growth, the development of a finite number of ward boundary proposals for consideration by the public, and a single proposed configuration that will be the subject of consultation and Council’s consideration.