General Committee Update – April 14, 2020

Last night Council had its first virtual General Committee meeting, which is the second virtual meeting Council has had since declaring a state of emergency. It is important that, in this difficult time, we continue to get the business of the Town completed. And, as always, I believe it is important to keep everyone updated with respect to decisions made.

At last night’s GC, Council had an agenda before it with a few issues to consider, one of which was the need to give direction with regards to the composition of Regional Council.   This past January, Regional Council passed a resolution to add an extra member to Regional  Council (another elected official) to represent the City of Vaughan. As a change to Regional Council composition requires a triple majority, each of the municipalities within York Region must also vote on the proposed change – which is why this item was on our agenda for discussion and deliberation. It will require a majority of the individual municipal councils to vote and pass it in order for it to be approved for the next election – 2022.

As residents know, I strongly disagree with increasing the size of Council, and voted against it when it was before Regional Council and my position hasn’t changed. I believe that effective representation of population at the Region may be achieved by reducing the number of elected officials and implementing weighted voted, not adding more. So I was pleased that Aurora Council agreed and unanimously voted to “not consent to a by-law of Regional Council, to change the composition of Regional Council by increasing the number of members representing the City of Vaughan from four (4) to five (5).”

I hope the other 8 municipalities see the light and decide that the adding more elected officials to Council –  even one – is not the most effective – or fiscally prudent – way  to achieve balanced and fair representation by population.

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2 Responses

  1. Thank you councilors for your amazing dedication and commitment to delivering effective results especially when you have to take the non-popular position. I was trying to watch it live via link shared by Councillor Gallo, but I wasn’t able to figure it out… Smiling. So, thanks again for the awesome team work especially in this moment. #staysafe

  2. Thank you Mr. Mayor for your ongoing support of the taxpayer and Aurora Council for the unanimous support of NOT adding another Regional Councillor. Weighted voting can and should be done.

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