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City council considers plebiscite to reduce its size

Vote to move forward with potential plebiscite in 2022 passes narrowly during tense debate.
City Council
A ballot question under consideration for the 2022 municipal election would ask voters if they support shrinking the size of city council. (Ian Kaufman, Tbnewswatch)

THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s city council will push forward with a potential plebiscite asking residents if they want to shrink council’s size, after a tense 7-6 vote Monday night.

Council directed city administration to return by September with a report on the possibility of adding the question to the ballot during the next municipal election in 2022.

If passed, changes could take effect in time for the following vote in 2026.

Coun. Peng You’s original motion contemplated asking residents whether to reduce council from 13 to 9 seats and do away with the ward system, electing 8 at-large councillors and a mayor.

Many councillors argued that was far too specific, rushing the city into a solution without proper research or consultation.

An amendment from Coun. Trevor Giertuga simplified the question to “Do you support a reduction in city council composition?”

Council could then hammer out details based on research and consultation during its next term, Giertuga said.

Council voted last year to receive a more comprehensive report on council reform. Council agreed to delay the project until after the 2022 election, after city clerk Krista Power said her office would not be able to conduct meaningful consultation in time.

The report would examine the experience of other cities, conduct public consultation, and consider changes like re-drawing ward boundaries, which Power said hadn't been done in decades.

“We haven’t had a ward boundary review since 1978 – that’s a long time ago, before some of our councillors were born,” she said.

Without first considering those broader questions, several councillors argued it made little sense to go to voters with a plebiscite.

“If this passes tonight, we have one option which is rather arbitrary, because nobody knows what the Goldilocks is for composition of council,” said Coun. Shelby Ch'ng. “It doesn’t make sense to go that route if there are other options.”

Those other options could include shifting to full-time council members, introducing a deputy mayor, or redrawing ward boundaries, she said.

Coun. Trevor Giertuga argued there had long been strong public support for reducing the size of city council, saying the idea had been brought up many times over his more than two decades as a councillor.

“People in the community have said to me so many times that they believe we don’t need this many councillors. [There are] many communities that have less councillors with a much higher population.”

“It’s not so much for financial efficiencies, I think it’s [more] finding better ways to do business.”

Mayor Bill Mauro agreed that a smaller group could make for better decisions.

“I believe a smaller council could be greatly more efficient and perhaps accomplish a lot more,” he said.

Giertuga suggested the hesitance of some of his colleagues could come down to a fear of stiffer competition for fewer seats.

“The people that don’t want to hear from the community, they’re the people that might be worried about losing their jobs, and that’s just my opinion. I’m not worried about losing my job.”

Coun. Mark Bentz pushed back on Giertuga’s statement.

“This is not about us sitting around the table – it’s not about Coun. Giertuga, or me, or anybody who wants this quote-unquote ‘job,’” he said. “It has to do with what the citizens want for representation, and they have to be consulted.

“Deciding what that question is going to be tonight by requesting a report on a specific ballot question cuts them right out of the picture, and that really concerns me.”

Coun. Kristen Oliver, who championed the call for a comprehensive report on council reform, agreed.

“I think it’s excluding the community from having that voice, from really determining what they want their council to look like."

If voter turnout in the plebiscite tops 50 per cent, as it did in municipal elections in 2014 and 2018, the results would be binding.

Giertuga said adding the question to the ballot was certain to boost engagement.

“I guarantee you if we [hold the plebiscite], we’d probably have the largest voter turnout in history,” he said. “[If] you want to hear public consultation, that’s the best public consultation you’ll ever get, is a plebiscite.”

Monday’s debate was marked by at times blatant lack of decorum on the part of several councillors.

Coun. Brian McKinnon, chairing the meeting, suggested Giertuga was “getting dumber” when he mistakenly accused the councillor of misinterpreting rules of order (in fact, McKinnon was in error on the rules).

After at first denying he made the comment, McKinnon later apologized, saying he had been out of line.

Councillors Giertuga and Peng You, who was at one point ruled out of order, later apologized for angry outbursts of their own.

The flared tempers came several hours into a meeting that stretched past 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Coun. Brian Hamilton called the exchanges “uncomfortable” and pressed McKinnon to rein in the behaviour.

Councillors Aiello, Giertuga, Johnson, McKinnon, Ruberto, and You, as well as Mauro, voted to receive a report on the potential referendum question.

Councillors Bentz, Ch’ng, Foulds, Fraser, Hamilton, and Oliver voted against.


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Ian Kaufman

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