LOWER MONTAGUE, P.E.I. — THREE RIVERS — Significant changes will be coming to Three Rivers Town council soon with a possible shake-up to the ward system currently in place for the municipality.
Monday night’s council meeting saw the Lower Montague Community Centre packed as members pushed through approval of re-sizing the council from 12 councillors to only eight.
At the halfway point of the meeting, Three Rivers Mayor Edward MacAulay called on Coun. Cody Jenkins to read out request 19-52 on the reduction of council size.
The options for approval were reducing council to either six council members or eight, plus a mayor.
Jenkins told the council the deadline to make a resolution on the council size would be Nov. 5.
Jenkins said that if council decided to go with eight, it would be the only town on P.E.I. to do so. Stratford and Cornwall have six each. The City of Summerside has eight councillors, and the City of Charlottetown has 10.
With the option of six councillors, Jenkins said the wards in Three Rivers would become bigger and cover more area.
“This is a politically sensitive area, too, I mean it, let’s face it… it really is,” said Coun. Gerard Holland. “Everybody wants a voice.”
When Coun. Alan Munro asked if the deadline could be moved, Jenkins said the provincial government could be flexible if an extension was requested.
Munro told the committee he is currently looking into an open ward system that would allow any constituents in any ward to vote outside their ward for the candidate or candidates of their choice during a municipal election.
Three Rivers' current 10 wards include the former towns of Montague and Georgetown and the former rural municipalities of Lorne Valley, Cardigan, Brudenell, Lower Montague and Valleyfield.
Munro’s comment on the open ward system sparked heated debate between councillors.
“I think [the open ward system] makes for a much healthier community,” said Holland.
“If I was representing all of Three Rivers I have to think about the bigger picture, not just looking after my own ward.”
Holland said he believed “silos were going up” in the community, especially as of late, and “not enough of us are looking after the big picture for Three Rivers."
He said he had spoken to the municipal government branch of the provincial government and was told most communities seemed to be establishing open ward systems and the results lead to a “healthier governance model”.
“I am hearing two different things, though – people saying, we need eight councillors because people need to be heard and then I am hearing that open wards, we could have four councillors in one area,” said deputy mayor Debbie Johnston.
“I am not for open wards at this time, maybe in another four years, but I think we still need to be closer to people to have their input.”
Johnston said the community of Three Rivers covers a large area, and eight councillors would be the ideal outcome of the request being approved.
After several more minutes of discussion, MacAulay said, for now, council should look to approve the request for reducing council size to either six or eight councillors.
Jill Walsh, chief administrative officer, said council can revisit ward structure once it has moved the approval of the resizing of council.
Council decided on eight members and will meet on Sept. 26 for the first reading of the new bylaw.
