This is the first in a 2018 series of commentaries from municipal politicians which allows them to tell you, in their own words, what is important to them, what bugs them and what makes them tick. Each week will feature a member of either the Huntsville or Lake of Bays Council. As we enter an election year, this is your opportunity to get a better picture of your elected politicians. Lake of Bays Mayor Bob Young kicks off the series.
Let us fast forward to December 2022. The District Council has just passed a resolution to reduce its size to 15, with 14 Councillors and one Chair (a reduction of seven Councillors). This is a significant change from the past, the first in close to 40 years – as can be seen in the table below.
DISTRICT COUNCIL COMPOSITION
| MUNICIPALITY | NEW COUNCILLORS | OLD COUNCILLORS |
| Huntsville | 3 | 4 |
| Bracebridge | 2 | 4 |
| Gravenhurst | 2 | 4 |
| Muskoka Lakes | 3 | 4 |
| Georgian Bay | 2 | 3 |
| Lake of Bays | 2 | 3 |
| District Chair | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 23 |
This idea is the culmination of work commenced in October 2017 by the previous Council.
This corrects a major discrepancy whereby seasonal residents were only counted as half-persons. It also reduces the size of an unwieldly Council where achieving consensus was almost impossible because of the inertia of size. What has been accomplished is a redistribution of Council seats to represent the changes in the population mix since Muskoka was formed. One anticipates the new Council to be much nimbler and also, very significantly, the Council membership is now equally divided between Town and Township Councillors — true equal representation. However, it now puts an immense responsibility upon the District Chair as a potential tie-breaker between the two groups. It is anticipated that with equal representation will come increased respect for each other and a compelling reason to seek compromise.
With the reduced number of Councillors, the District has had to rethink the way it does business as there are fewer people to populate the many committees. This current committee system has serious flaws, but most specifically because so much debate and decision making is made by only six Councillors. Recommendations made here are usually rubber stamped by Council with no additional debate. The new revised method of conducting the business of the District will be to reduce the many routine items which are brought before committee or Council and direct them directly to staff. Then there will be two major meetings per month — a committee of the whole (COW) where matters can be debated more fully with the relaxed rules of committee and a formal Council meeting where all final decisions are made. This will be more efficient for all. While there will be direct cost savings, these are small compared to the efficiencies both for the Councillors and the staff, and, of course, the primary benefit — to ensure that the WHOLE population of Muskoka is appropriately represented at the District of Muskoka.
Well, unfortunately, we are not in December 2022. Is all of the above some form of political fiction? Is equal representation, council size reduction, District business management change all a pipe dream? I truly hope not. But to achieve change there has to be a willingness to risk change and that has been sorely lacking on behalf of the Towns of Muskoka, in my opinion, over the last seven years I have been involved. It is far too easy to make like an ostrich and stick your head in the sand and pray the nasty noises go away. This has been the norm for 40-plus years and it must stop. It will be up to the next Council to affect real change — but more importantly it will be up to the public to elect representatives to Council who have the balls for change. Exercise your power — run for office, vote and vote wisely.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.
To read more in this 2018 series of commentaries from municipal politicians, click here.
Bob Young
Mayor, Township of Lake of Bays
Bob Young is Mayor of the Township of Lake of Bays. He has a PhD. In chemical engineering and spent forty years in the oil and gas industry, primarily in senior positions. Since his retirement, he has been active in the political arena and has never been shy about expressing his views on issues of the day! Bob and his wife have two daughters and three grandchildren.
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My point was about your credibility Mr. Mayor and this is reinforced with your reply. As a retired planner who has been extensively involved in lake management, I can confirm that the underlying reasons for the LOBA position and actions were well-justified.
Even Mayor Young’s proposal is just tinkering around the edges. A more massive renovation of municipal government in Muskoka is required.
Muskoka is vastly over governed as has been pointed out by others before. We have way too many councillors and total staff considering other jurisdictions with much larger populations.
It was arranged this way in order to get public buy-in back in 1970 when the province set up District Government. Even then it was recognized as a seriously compromised arrangement but it met the goal of accomplishing a substantial consolidation of municipalities (all the many former townships and towns) which existed before “District”.
The huge leap to a single municipal government which was then and still is a more efficient arrangement was seen as a leap too far.
In my view the next step needs to accomplish much more than a reduction of a few District councillors as suggested by Mayor Young.
Rather, another big renovation is required resulting in one municipality and one council of about 20 members and a Chair.
Among the many salutory effects this would have which should please Mayor Young is that under this new system each voter would carry the same weight no matter where they might reside.
In addition there would be two year terms in office and term limits of two terms. The chair would have to sit at least one two year term as a councillor prior to running at large for chair and she/he would then be limited to two terms as chair.
It is a pity that the Province lacks the fortitude to set such a system up as it is doubtful local politicians would ever take such self sacrificial action.
Food for thought.
Andy, could be an interesting topic for another op ed piece with a different perspective of how, in my opinion, LOBA directors squandered $83,000 of their members reserves but not really germain to this current topic.
It’s unfortunate that Mr. Young has chosen to alienate himself from the single largest (and legitimate) interest group in his municipality: the Lake of Bays Association. While it is unrealistic to expect the municipality and the Association to be in full agreement on all issues, it is (in my view) incumbent on the mayor to (at the very least) respect that, where there is disagreement, the Association’s position should not result in very public calls from the mayor for the resignation of the Association’s leadership. Those actions, Your Worship, place all of your positions, comments and other actions under immediate question by those of us who believe that the LOBA leadership is appropriately and legitimately standing up for our interests.