Ward boundaries could be shifting in time for the next municipal election.
The Town of Innisfil is conducting a review of its ward boundaries and council composition to ensure every area of the municipality is fairly represented. This is done by giving each of the town's seven wards a comparable population size, to make sure everyone's vote carries a similar weight.
As part of the process, the town will host in-person community engagement sessions on Sept. 19 from 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. at the Innisfil ideaLAB and Library’s Lakeshore branch (967 Innisfil Beach Rd.).
The goal is to bring a final report and recommendation to council in November 2024, and to have those new rules in place in time for the 2026 municipal election.
“The primary purpose of the study is to prepare Town Council to make decisions on whether to maintain the existing council composition and ward structure or to adopt an alternative,” said Watson and Associates Economists, the consultant team tasked with the review, in a recent discussion paper. “This ... Review is premised on the legitimate democratic expectation that municipal representation in Innisfil on election day and throughout the term of Council will be effective, equitable, and an accurate reflection of the contemporary distribution of communities and people across the municipality.”
Council approved the creation of an ad hoc ward boundary review committee as part of an overall municipal elections engagement plan in 2023.
The town itself was incorporated in January 1991, however, it has both expanded and reduced territory at times since then — growing that year to include a northern section of the then-townships of West Gwillimbury and Tecumseth and the Village of Cookstown, but decreasing in the following years when the Village of Thornton was amalgamated with the Township of Essa (1994) and when the City of Barrie annexed a northern section of the town (2010).
Innisfil council currently consists of a mayor and deputy mayor elected at-large, and one councillor from each ward. Present ward boundaries have been in place since 2009.
Three potential alternatives are being considered:
- A Communities of Interest option would see distinct lakeshore and rural wards created. Sandy Cove and Friday Harbour would get its own ward, too, with the remaining four divided among the populations of Alcona, Lefroy and Belle Ewart.
- Option 2 splits the rural population along a north-south divide, Lefroy and Belle Ewart would be brought into one specific ward, with Alcona's population split among three wards. Sandy Cove and Friday Harbour still get their separate ward here. A variant of this proposal has also been discussed that would instead see one rural ward and two lakeshore wards created.
- Option 3 focuses on balancing the existing population by having one distinct rural ward, no specific lakeshore wards, Lefroy and Belle Ewart within one ward, Sandy Cove and Friday Harbour within one ward and Alcona's population divided among four wards. A variant on this option pitches that balance be made based on the town's projected 2034 population, with distinct wards for the proposed Orbit project, the rural community and Lefroy/Belle Ewart.
While the Municipal Act mandates a minimum size for a municipality’s council at five, there are “no references to a maximum,” the consultants say.
“Despite the long history of municipal institutions in Ontario, the premises and practices used for determining the overall composition of councils has never been satisfactorily or definitively addressed, either in legislation or regulation,” they write. “There are no clear principles at play, no ‘standards,’ and no formulas to apply. Each municipality has its own history, its own traditions, and its own attributes. Furthermore, there is no established timetable to require that municipal councils review the continuing validity of the number of places at the council table.”
Council composition varies widely across Ontario, and Innisfil’s is actually larger than bigger municipalities like Whitby, Aurora, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Orangeville and Burlington but also the same size or smaller than councils elected in some rural or smaller centres like Gravenhurst, North Perth and Muskoka Lakes.
Innisfil’s present ward design dates from 15 years ago, when the municipality’s population was about 31,000. Today, that’s surpassed 43,000 — it’s projected to grow to nearly 60,000 within the next decade, including Orbit.
“As a community changes, so should its electoral arrangements, more than ever when there are perceptible and inequitable discrepancies in the population of existing wards,” the consultants say.
Right now, populations range from 3,841 in Ward 1 to 9,871 in Ward 3 — with four of the town’s seven wards falling outside what is considered the “optimal” range (a variance of 25 per cent or less) for parity.
Based on that, the down does not have "effective voter representation," the consultants say.
“We need to look at alternatives,” Watson managing partner Jack Ammendolia said during an Aug. 26 committee meeting. “When we think about the existing system, one of the major things we recognize is that when we talk about representation by population, we definitely have some issues. When we do these reviews, a place may actually grow into parity. Here, that's not the case.”
Registration for an in-person session is recommended but not required.
For more information, or to sign up for a session, visit getinvolvedinnisfil.ca/wardreview.
