HEATHER BOA Bullet News CLINTON – When voters go the polls in the next municipal election, they should know who they are electing to Huron County council, say council members in the Municipality of Central Huron.
They passed a motion last night that all county councillors should be elected at large.
Their motion, if supported by county council, would affect the Township of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, which is one of nine municipalities in Huron County. In the 2010 municipal election, Ben Van Diepenbeek was acclaimed to the position of reeve, which secured him a seat at the county council table. Neil Rintoul, who was acclaimed in the Wawanosh Ward, was then appointed by the seven-member council to be its deputy reeve at county council.
“That is a system that I believe is very unfair to the electors because they do not know who they are putting in the position,” said Coun. Brian Barnim.
Jim Ginn, who is the mayor of Central Huron, said the same argument was made at county council when it recently discussed, then rejected, the idea of allowing lower-tier municipalities the option of sending the mayor and deputy mayor or the reeve and deputy reeve, or an alternate to county council.
Huron County council will ask the public and lower-tier municipalities to endorse a reduced 15-member council in Huron County, moving from a system that relies on the number of registered voters to determine how many representatives from each municipality will sit at the council table to a pre-determined representation from each municipality, regardless of the number of registered voters. This arrangement would result in one less councillor from the Municipality of Bluewater, effective in the 2014 municipal election.
The proposal that will go before a public meeting and be circulated to all lower-tier councils calls for a county council composed of the reeve of the Township of Howick, the reeve of the Township of North Huron, the mayor of the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry, the reeve and deputy reeve from the Township of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, the mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipality of Bluewater, the mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipality of Central Huron, the mayor and deputy mayor of the Town of Goderich, the mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipality of Huron East, and the mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipality of South Huron.
Council is required under the Municipal Act to hold a public meeting and to circulate the bylaw for comment from lower-tier municipalities.
In addition, it will require what’s referred to as a triple-majority, meaning it needs approval by the majority of county council, the majority of the municipal councils in the county, and those municipal council that voted in favour must collectively represent the majority of voters across the county.
One Comment on "Voters should know who will represent them at county council, says Central Huron council"
“When voters go the polls in the next municipal election, they should know who they are electing to Huron County council, say council members in the Municipality of Central Huron”
That’s good advice but applies to all elections, not just municipal ones.
Being an educated and informed voter would hopefully start raising the bar of our elected representatives.
Sadly, interest and education in local governance isn’t on the minds or agenda of too many. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a GDCI grad who could tell you who our town councillors are, let alone anything about the political process.