Staff at the District Municipality of Muskoka have been asked to investigate the process and impact of changing the composition of the upper-tier council.
The resolution was brought before District Council on September 21 by the Lake of Bays and Georgian Bay mayors. They argue that while Muskoka’s four other municipalities have four representatives sitting at the table, theirs only have three.
Attempts by Bracebridge district councillor Don Smith to amend that resolution because it didn’t go far enough, and table it so that another resolution could be brought forward at a later date looking at District governance as a whole, was defeated. See his opinion piece here.
Instead, councillors decided to take the issue in small steps.
In a follow-up interview, Young argued that no matter how you slice it, Muskoka’s six municipalities not having the same representation at the upper-tier level is a matter of equality.
“Are we not equals at the table?” he questioned.
When asked about representation by population, noting that Lake of Bays’ population is much smaller than that of other municipalities in Muskoka, Young had this to say: “Well how much are we paying at the District? Well we’re paying about the same amount at Lake of Bays as Bracebridge is, within half a percentage point, so if I’m paying that much I should at least have representation at the table.”
Young was cautious about making arguments related to representation by assessment.
“I just don’t like anything based on assessment. That’s what’s been the whole problem with the (District) payment model. We are allocated costs based on the assessment, irrespective of whether we have many people behind that assessment,” said Young.
Young also argued that he and fellow District councillors from Lake of Bays are also doing just as much work.
“We just have to double up and at least one of the councillors has to take on two committee meetings. So we do the same work as they do. We pay proportionately more money than they do and we’re under-represented,” said Young.
“I think it should be equal,” he reiterated. “Why shouldn’t that be the fundamental philosophy rather than it has to meet this model or that test?”
Young said he does not believe that having 22 councillors, plus the District chair, is necessary. He said he’d much rather see a smaller but equal upper-tier government around the District council table. In terms of arguments about whether there ought to be two levels of governance, that, he said, is a discussion for another day, once the fundamental idea of equality around the table has been dealt with.
In terms of reducing the number of positions and asking District councillors to vote themselves out of a job, Young pointed out that any changes would not take effect until the next term of council.
The District Municipality of Muskoka is made up of six member municipalities – Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Muskoka Lakes, Lake of Bays, and Georgian Bay.
0 Comments