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Essa: Council hears another presentation on ward system

May 24, 2013   ·   1 Comments

Essa council has heard another presentation on changing the township’s present ward system before next year’s coming election.

Shawn Bubel, an Ivy resident who ran for Deputy Mayor in the township in 2010, made a presentation to council last week.

Bubel said that he was taking a different approach than the Angus Ratepayers Association which asked for a change to the wards which would reflect the growing population in the Angus area.

“From my research on the township’s population, it seems that there hasn’t been that much growth in Angus-Borden area,” he said. “And I don’t think that Angus has suffered from under-representation considering that in the past 20 years that the mayor has been from there for 13 of those years.”

Bubel suggested that the existing ward in Angus stay in its present form and that the two outside wards be divided along County Road 21 into north and south wards which would better reflect those areas’ connection to Barrie and Alliston/Cookstown respectively. Presently the wards are divided into east/west basis.

Under Bubel’s proposal, Thornton would be placed in the northern ward Township mayor Terry Dowdall said that he hasn’t heard many complaints about poor representation with the current system.

“I haven’t heard a lot of complaints from the general public. And personally, I oppose making council any larger. You can’t convince me that a larger council would be more efficient.”

Council directed Bubel’s presentation to be received and directed to staff.

By Richard Blanchard

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