Prince Edward County makes unexpected choice on council size

By Mark Hodgins

BELLEVILLE – Prince Edward County council decided to reduce its own size on Tuesday night.

According to news reports, council voted in favour of a plan authored by local resident John Thompson that will see the county divided into nine wards represented by 13 councillors and a mayor – down from the current 10 wards and 15 councillors plus a mayor.

Here’s a look at what the new ward system will look like:

Prior to Tuesday’s decision, Mayor Robert Quaiff had told QNet News that residents of the county were sick and tired of the long debate about reducing the size of council. After the municipal election a year ago, council set up a series of public meetings to gather input on the issue. At the conclusion of the public meetings, councillors held a vote Oct. 30 on whether to cut the size of council. To the astonishment of many, it failed to pass.

“The public opinion out there is that they’re exhausted,” said Quaiff. “They’re tired of it, they’ve heard enough of it, enough taxpayer money has been spent on it.”

Citizens, he said, were saying that council should “just make a decision one way or another and move on.”

But with Tuesday’s decision, it seems the process could be far from over. That’s because, as Quaiff told County Live, the vote will probably be challenged before the Ontario Municipal Board – the tribunal that holds hearings and issues decisions on municipal matters, including ward boundaries.

A number of options for reducing the size of council had been put forward, but going into the meeting on Tuesday night, the one that seemed most likely – other than keeping the status quo – was a plan from county resident Gary Mooney. His idea was to split the county into three wards, and bring the number of councillors down to 12. Quaiff had said that he was certain a councillor would request that Mooney’s plan be brought forward again  Tuesday night for further discussion.

More to come.