verbena-19

Ontario: Municipal Elections to be Held Less Frequently!

Hello,

The provincial government is about to pass legislation that will reduce the frequency of municipal elections from every three years to four, with no public hearings and no debate! The item was snuck into a budget bill this month with no formal announcement and could have final approval by next week.

Fewer local elections will serve only the interests of politicians seeking to delay their accountability to the voters. More importantly, a change like this should never happen without public consultation.

For much more info and a call to action go to: http://threeyears.ca

Note: I phoned the Democratic Renewal Secretariat who indicated that they only look at democracy at the provincial level. So I contacted the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing at 416-585-7000. They told me the
following:

1. the jurisdiction of MA&H includes length of term for municipal governments

2. several other provinces and countries have municipal elections every four years

3. "municipalities have asked" for this change. This means that the Association of Municipalites of Ontario (AMO) conducted a survey of municipal Councils (mayors and councillors) where 61% of the respondents favoured the four year period

4. this initiative has been discussed for a long time

5. four years would give municipalities more planning time.

Notice anything about accountability to the electorate yet? I didn't either.

MA&H also told me:

6. this matter DID NOT GO OUT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR INPUT. Local councils could have sought input from their constituents. Maybe I missed that process in Oakville.

7. the change is attached to (read "hidden in") a budget bill so that it can be passed this spring and the four year terms implemented beginning with this fall's election. Is this openess or ramming through?

8. Oakville Mayor MULVALE (past president of the AMO) defended the four year proposal at the committee level. Hmmmm?

Brian

posted by Annamarie at 5:31 PM