RE- NF Council Shrinkage

Feb 16, 2017

Oh, dear, here we go again. That old notion of a smaller municipal council is being trotted out once more in North Frontenac.

Well, a five-member Council was a bad idea in 2013, and it’s a bad idea now. The new proposal is slightly different, but the arguments against it are just as valid now as they were then. Cutting the number of councillors from seven down to five would reduce both the effectiveness and the responsiveness of our local government. Good government requires a critical mass and a diversity of perspectives. Having fewer voices at the council table would limit the range of ideas and the scope of dialogue and debate on the many issues townships have to deal with. And consider the highly probable scenario where one or more councilors are absent from one or more meetings.

The proposal would also reduce the access that we as citizens and residents have to our most immediate level of government. Moreover, with only two wards, one of them would inevitably end up with a majority of the five votes, leaving people in the other ward largely disenfranchised.

Members of Council already carry a considerable workload, with masses of material to review for every meeting, and additional work on committees, the County, and various organizations. Reducing the number of councillors would make that workload even heavier. The work would still have to be done and paid for, whether by extra staff or extra hours for the remaining councillors, canceling out any supposed cost savings (which in any case would be minimal). It might also be
harder to get qualified candidates willing to run for election.

In order for our municipal government to work effectively, we need a dynamic balance of perspectives from the various different communities scattered across our large territory. We already did all the amalgamating we can afford and still have local democracy. Instead of whittling it down even further, we might consider adding a third councillor for Ward 1 to help address the concern about population balance.

This is a fundamental question, not a minor matter to be mentioned in a few paragraphs in the middle of a township report. As citizens, we must make it clear that reducing our representation and access to local government is unacceptable. A council of seven or eight provides the critical mass we need – let’s keep it.