Ottawa reps concerned about council cutting, despite Ford’s word
Posted Jul 30, 2018 07:36:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
City councillors in the capital are expressing concerns about the province imposing a smaller number of them at the City of Ottawa.
Rideau-Goulbourn Ward's Scott Moffatt told The Rick Gibbons Show on 1310 NEWS, municipal councillors are “closer on the ground” to rate-payers overseeing everyday services like road clearing and garbage collection, and it wasn't that long ago that his ward had a lot more representation than it does now.
“If you go back 17 or 18 years, this whole area [of Rideau-Goulbourn] was represented by possibly 11 different representatives — two mayors, about eight councillors per township and then you would have had some representation in Nepean, said Moffat. “Do the people here deserve even less representation than what they had back then?”
Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Tobi Nussbaum said he is worried that the findings of next year's ward boundary review will be dismissed by Queen's Park, should the Doug Ford-led government decide to expand on its plans for Toronto.
“For him to change the rules in the middle of the game, even though it didn't happen for us here in Ottawa, is very worrisome in terms of how the premier interprets his relationships to cities and what he thinks about people's rights to fair elections,” said Nussbaum.
When the Premier announced his plans to slash Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 seats, Ford was quick to say he had no plans to give Ottawa a similar cut.
He called comparing Toronto and Ottawa, “apples and oranges.”
