Skip to content

'Get rid of us all’; County council can't agree on new structure

'Let’s let the populace elect members at-large for county council,' suggests Severn Township mayor during lengthy debate
2020-03-11 County JO-002
County of Simcoe council chambers. Jessica Owen/BarrieToday

For a brief moment on Tuesday, County of Simcoe council considered increasing their council complement to 37 members.

County councillors spent three hours discussing the pros and cons of changing the governance structure of Simcoe County council on Tuesday during a special meeting where a variety of options were considered. But in the end, they opted to not make a decision and referred the matter back to the governance committee - again.

Midland Mayor Stewart Strathearn reminded councillors that, currently, there is not one person elected to deal 100 per cent with county business.

“It’s high time that there was,” he said. “Anybody I talk to in the Town of Midland has no idea what the county does and has no idea that the mayor and deputy mayor sit on county council. That is, until somebody doesn’t pick their garbage up.”

“Most residents don’t have a clue. They’re not in this bubble called politics. To think they care at all, I think, is a fiction,” said Strathearn. “If we’re not prepared to make these decisions now, why waste the staff time and the governance committee’s time?”

Currently, Simcoe County council is made up of 32 members: the mayor and deputy mayor of all 16 member municipalities get a seat at the table, with the warden and deputy warden positions elected from within those ranks.

Barrie and Orillia do not have a seat at the county council table as they are separated cities.

Under the new model considered on Tuesday, one representative from each member municipality would get a seat at the table – either the mayor from each municipality or a member chosen by each municipal council, for 16 seats – as well as five regional, at-large councillors which would be elected and don’t serve on any other municipal council.

Future wardens and deputy wardens would be elected from the regional councillor pool.

“We don’t even know if there’s going to be a cost savings,” said Wasaga Beach Deputy Mayor Sylvia Bray. “I don’t think there will be. There certainly wasn’t in Toronto. It’s hard for me to vote on something not knowing what the dollars are.”

“We’re also adding a layer of governance through adding regional councillors,” she added.

Oro-Medonte Township Deputy Mayor Ralph Hough raised concerns that reducing the number of part-time county councillors only to add full-time councillors would definitely not reduce costs.

“There’s also no mention of what these people would do. We’ve not seen any job description,” he said.

Splitting the items into two motions (having 16 lower-tier representatives and having five regional at-large county councillors), caused confusion and varying opinions at the council table on Tuesday.

“I don’t know how to vote on this, because my vote would change if we were not in support of the regional representation,” said Tiny Township Deputy Mayor Steffen Walma, when speaking on the motion to reduce the size of county council from 32 to 16.

“I would be in favour of reducing to 16 if those five exist. If they don’t exist, I would be staying at 32,” he said. “It’s a cart and a horse situation for me.”

Councillors defeated the motion to reduce the size of county council from 32 to 16, which then created a conundrum for the rest of the considerations, which included details around the election of the five regional councillors including weighted voting options, compensation, how wardens and deputy wardens would be elected and their term lengths.

Many councillors expressed dismay that, if they voted for the five regional councillor model, that would increase the overall size of council to 37, which would go against the original purpose of the exercise to streamline council to make it more efficient.

It’s been more than a year since the PC government tasked some of Ontario’s regional governments, including the County of Simcoe, with looking at reducing the size of their local councils.

In October 2019 after receiving a report on the matter from special advisors Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling, the provincial government announced that they would not be imposing any changes.

At that time, they also indicated they would not be releasing the report to the public.

Despite that news, County of Simcoe council decided to continue looking at governance structure and service delivery to find efficiencies.

Before any changes can happen in regards to the composition and size of Simcoe County council, triple majority approval is required.

Triple majority approval requires:

  • A majority of all votes on county council must be cast in favour of the change;
  • A majority of the councils of all 16 lower-tier municipalities must have passed resolutions consenting to the change; and
  • The population of the lower-tier municipalities that pass resolutions consenting to the change must form the majority of electors in the County of Simcoe.

A public meeting must also occur.

“If we can’t get a clear vote here, we’re never going to get it through a triple majority,” said Ramara Mayor Basil Clarke.

Severn Mayor Mike Burkett spoke about considering completely different models.

“The governance committee hasn’t suggested electing 16 at large. How about that?” he said. “If county councillors now are not focused on their job at the county, well let’s get rid of us all. Let’s let the populace elect members at-large for county council.”

At the end of the meeting, councillors voted to refer the subject back to the governance committee to consider the option of having the warden and deputy warden positions become full-time positions focused entirely on county business.


Reader Feedback

Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
Read more