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Home My WebLink AboutCAO-005-12 Clarington REPORT CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: October 29, 2012 Resolution#: - By-law#: Report#: CAO-005-12 File#: Subject: FEDERAL ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES - MUNICIPALITY'S RESPONSE TO BOUNDARY COMMISSION'S PROPOSALS RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CAO-005-12 be received; and 2. THAT Council approve Scenario 1 in the attached map as the basis of the Municipal submission to the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario. Submitted by: G` `'DC 4�' Franklin Wu, M.A.O.M Chief Administrative Officer FWAP CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: CAO-005-12 PAGE 2 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario (hereafter referred to as "the Commission") has proposed new riding boundaries for the next regular federal election. The Commission is currently discussing these proposals at public hearings and Mayor Foster is scheduled to present Clarington's position on November 13th in Oshawa. The Commission's proposals are illustrated in the attached map. They would mean that Clarington would be split between three federal ridings, with a minority share of the population of each of these three ridings: • 47.35% of the proposed Oshawa-Bowmanville • 15.7% of the proposed Oshawa-Durham • 14.9% of the proposed Kawartha Lakes-Port Hope-Cobourg Currently, Clarington's population of 84,548 (2012 census) is 67% of the riding of Durham. Scugog (pop. 21,569) makes up 17% and Uxbridge (pop. 20,716) the remaining 16%. 2.0 PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT AND KEY NEXT STEPS 2.1. The purpose of this report is to follow up on the direction from the September 24th GPA meeting which supported Report CAO-004-12 and Council's subsequent endorsement by Oct 1St resolution C-280-12-12 which provided: • Clarington's suggested three key messages and five principles in response to the Boundary Commission's proposals to arrive at the Commission's desired population of 106,000 population per riding • Distribution of the above to the Region, area municipalities and Durham Region MPs and MPPs. 2.2 The earlier report noted that Clarington's population, combined with Scugog, would be 106,117, almost exactly at the quota number sought by the Commission. Aside from meeting the Commission's key criteria, this option would preserve both Clarington's and Scugog's community identity and recognize the historical north/south orientation of municipal, regional, provincial and federal electoral boundaries. It would continue to leave Clarington a dominant share of the population of the riding — 80% (as against the current 67% share) and Scugog 20% (as against the current 17% share). 3.0 KEY MESSAGES AND KEY PRINCIPLES ON FEDERAL RIDING BOUNDARIES ACCEPTED TO DATE BY COUNCIL The September 24th GPA report indicated that "Pending development of alternate riding boundaries for discussion by council at the October 29th GPA meeting, it is recommended that Clarington use the following three key messages REPORT NO.: CAO-005-12 PAGE 3 a) Clarington acknowledges that the Commission has a difficult job to do in balancing a range of different criteria in coming up with new riding boundaries b) Clarington is committed to leadership of our community and will work with the Clarington community, the surrounding municipalities and the Commission in developing alternative riding boundaries that: • balances the Commission's criteria • ensures that Clarington has a majority of the share of the population of at least one riding • creates a suitable and feasible result. c) Clarington urges the Commission to recognize the unusual current situation where Clarington, as one of only three ridings in the country that does not currently have a sitting M.P., and therefore the need to ensure manageable change in the boundaries. The aim should be to limit risks to (1) attracting candidates to seek office in the federal by-election to represent the area knowing that their constituency's composition and campaign workers may significantly change and (2) confusion for the voting public in the by-election and the next regular election. That September 24th report went on to say; "the following five principles could guide the alternatives to present to the Commission: i. Where a municipality has a population less than that required to meet the "quota" of 106,000 population, to the extent possible, the municipality should not be divided, but rather the municipality's population and area should be taken "in tact" in forming an electoral boundary ii. the community of interest and identity of communities, an important fabric of what makes our country the envy of the world, should be strengthened and not torn by electoral boundaries. Clarington looks to the Commission to support it and the Clarington community's efforts in building our community identity, efforts that have included: a) Changing the name of the municipality in 1993 to reflect the whole community (with the first part of the name "Clarke Township" combined with the last part of the name "Darlington Township" to create the new name "Clarington".) b) Promoting the establishment and growth of a Board of Trade for the whole of the municipality— the now very successful Clarington Board of Trade - to cover the entire municipality REPORT NO.: CAO-005-12 PAGE 4 c) Community organizations organizing themselves based on Clarington's municipal boundaries, including, Big Brothers and Sisters of Clarington; Clarington Older Adult Association; Clarington Girls Hockey Association; Clarington Toros Minor Hockey Association. d) Community businesses using Clarington in their branding, e.g., Clarington auto dealerships and medical and marketing businesses. iii. Understandability and efficiency for community organizations and the Municipality in dealing with federal matters affecting the community should be advanced by the Commission's work, e.g., federal regulation of the nuclear industry, federal policies on agriculture, trade and waterways, federal funding of infrastructure —to minimize costs and challenges of arranging meetings with multiple local MPs rather than one local MP. iv. Recognition of the historical North/South, rather than East/West orientation of the Clarington and Durham community as reflected in the orientation of the Clarington and Durham municipal electoral wards and in the current federal and provincial riding of"Durham". V. The recognition of the important agriculture component of the Clarington community and the need to maintain a "farm voice" by ensuring that the agricultural community is taken as a whole in forming a riding and not diffused among multiple ridings. 4.0 ACTIONS TO DATE: 4.1 The Municipality has: • placed a public notice in local media on September 19th to advise residents of where to get info about the Commission's proposals and how to register to speak to the Commission. The notice also indicated that Clarington is preparing a submission to the Commission on its proposals. To date, no one has contacted the Municipality about presenting to the Commission. • distributed Clarington's earlier position to those named in the October 1st resolution as well to the President of AMO and to the Federal Chief Government Whip. Responses have not been received as at the time of preparation of this report. • through Mayor Foster, participated in the Regional Municipality of Durham's task force of all eight area municipal mayors and the Regional Chair. REPORT NO.: CAO-005-12 PAGE 5 5.0 OUTLINE OF CLARINGTON'S POSITION TO PRESENT TO COMMISSION 5.1 The three key messages and five principles set out above remain very relevant. In fact, keeping Clarington whole is reflected in the positions of both the Region of Durham Task Force and the Clarington Board of Trade. 5.2 Note however that as illustrated in the attached correspondence from the Regional Chair, Clarington would be combined with Scugog Township and Brock Township to form one riding. This proposal is to come before Regional Council on October 31St for endorsement. Please note that seven of the eight mayors accept this proposal. At the time of writing the Mayor of Brock Township was opposed, suggesting Brock Township should continue to form part of a riding that excludes the balance of Durham Region. 5.3 Clarington's position before the Commission should be that federal electoral boundaries be developed for Clarington's population that: a) implements the five principles as accepted earlier by Council, and respected by the Region and the CBOT b) keeps Clarington whole for purposes of establishing federal electoral boundaries c) provides an openess to consideration of the impact on neighboring municipalities, including Brock Township d) demonstrates preparedness to work with the Commission following its hearings to lend its geographic, demographic and political boundary making experience to the Commission's work ahead to advise on means of developing boundaries for those areas impacted by Clarington's proposal with the benefit of knowing after the hearings the other communities' proposals 6.0 KEY NEXT STEPS 6.1 The Proposed Federal Electoral Boundaries could significantly impact the Municipality and the community. Each has an opportunity to influence the Commission, a body that is authorized to make the final decision after input from the hearings and from current MPs. 6.2 Council previously adopted a number of principles to guide the development of its proposals. The Regional Mayors Task Force and the CBOT respect these principles and these can form the basis of Clarington's position as set out in 5.3 above. A presentation reflecting this recommendation will be made by the Mayor to the Commission at its November 13th hearing in Oshawa. REPORT NO.: CAO-005-12 PAGE 6 CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN The recommendations contained in this report conform to the general intent of the following priorities of the Strategic Plan: X Promoting economic development Maintaining financial stability X Connecting Clarington Promoting green initiatives Investing in infrastructure X Showcasing our community Not in conformity with Strategic Plan October 16, 2012 Sent to: All Durham MPs All Durham MPPs The Regional Durham Chambers of Commerce Municipality and Boards of Trade Of Durham Office of the Regional Chair 605 Rossland Rd. East For Your Attention: P.O. Box 623 Whitby, Ontario Canada, L1 N 6A3 e: Proposed R P osed Federal Electoral Boundaries (905)668-7711 1-800-372-1102 Fax: (905)668-1567 As you may be aware, Durham Region has registered to make a Email: roger.anderson@ submission to the federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the durham.ca Province of Ontario to present a case for an alternative option to www.durham.ca their proposal. Roger M.Anderson A task force was convened comprising all eight area municipal Regional Chair&CEO mayors and myself. We met to discuss various options and we agreed that option 1 is our preferred recommendation, but should the Commission favour option 2, we could also accept that. This recommendation will go before Regional Council on October , 2012 for endorsement. 1 When formulating our position, we took into account two very important principles. Firstly that all of the ridings would be contained within Durham Region itself, and that as many municipalities as possible would remain whole. We have accomplished this, and the only two municipalities that have been divided (Whitby and Oshawa) are each too large to be a single riding and not populous enough to support two ridings. We are sending the two options to you, and would welcome any comments by Friday October 26th, prior to our Regional Council meeting. Yours truly, Roger And "Service Excellence Regional Chair and CEO for our Communities" KEY MAP SIMCOE NORTH � r -------- .mm YORK-SIMCOE "l I I :- �• ]f .ate l? + ' ! HALIBURTOMKAWARTHA LAKES-BROCK f POPULA7ION-117,576° 3 I b] .n I — vsrtw fi _ VI `oxwcm 'n Fwxins�� f .- I 1 p _ - POPULATION-126,933 I a I , a, s M —�.`" w wHlYer osd AJAX-PICKERlNG -�' — I - POPULAT awa POPULATIO N=137,217 ou�E a, rr F-. osHawA� POPULATION 725;3P27 I'� p PICKER G- "- SCAR80R000F!EAST POPULA;ION_107;9f0 Existing Federal Electoral Districts (FED) SCALE LEGEND QExisting Federal Electoral Districts=Municipal Boundary Urban Area Hamlet Existing Federal Electoral Districts Existing FED Population FED 2011 Pickering-Scarborough East 107,910 Ajax-Pickedn 137,217 Whitby-Oshawa 146,307 Oshawa 125,322 Durham 126,833 Holiburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock 117,576 a�=�.• .<�.,.� a�a =a=n�i�.��vmo � �e�� ',�'e !� °•° KEY MAP BARRIE NORTH - SWCOE NORTH L ; r t� YORK—SIMCOE r r _ °POPULATION-9H,578 -♦ .eT,v f .�,.,.s. s �•�� .s�W i e w+ J 77" — J 111°.we ,..a=mr s , y NALIBURiON—UXBRIDGE _. POPULATION-166,458 1 / m: I - I i w — 5 2 C i x 9 _ KAWARTHA LAKES—PORT NOPE—COBOURG..— POPULATI0N-109,110 t - � G—BRO OKLIN ATION 109367 ° O HAWA—DURRAMa POP ULA77ON-11 247 ti �F y � i WHITBY � I i c ,AJAX POPULATION.101 380t POPULATION-109,600 I '-'�1•'I,,,j 1 L.-„ / ,• �� _ 09HAWA BOWMANVIL 107;b74 I SCAR�SOIJGH � � \ � ��SyQ1£ �` �•: Proposed Federal Electoral Districts (FED) SCALE LEGEND OProposed Federal Electoral Districts Durham Municipal Area Municipal Boundary Urban Area Hamlet Proposed Federal Electoral Districts FED Durham Percenatge (FED) Population Population In Durham Share Pickedn -Brookiin 109363 109363 100% A'ax 109,6 109,60 100% Whiib 101,3 101,38 100% Oshawa-Bowm-1111. 107674 107674 100% Oshawa-Durham 110247 110252 100% °°aq,y anaw e�°nnn':caxxrys:Mnxlae c.xn.r ara aox canar, Haliburton-Ukbrid a 108450 49646 46% Tnxa aaazM ° xn0 d °°mroe+ewae+roe on:.:°� Kawartha Lakes-Port Ho -Cobourg 109110 16229 15% York-Sim 98,578 3,978 46A mmau:.. aT pom�vs ar<mU.i° mio°�.°e wawa°ee: rmaai a �: °°enMv IKEY MAP All ME= ------------- --- ------- fl 'T 12- r. ��.x tiI --------------------- ------ - IV PICKEMNG-UXBRIDGE I POPULATION II a ";N -,--'CEARWGT '-SCU6 �POOULA,770A, OG-BROCK slow 17,551 C' JAX� I I . s Lij Scenario 1-Federal Electoral Districts (FED) SCALE LEGEND Scenario i Municipal Boundary Urban Area . Hamlet Durham Proposed Federal Proposed FED Provincial Percentage Population Electoral quotas uota(Upper Districts(FED) Population Limit) Difference to PO Share (2) Pl,c, kering-Uxbridge 109,344 106,213 2_95% 1000/6 109,600 106,213 3.19% 100% Whit' 96075 106,213 -9.54% 100%Mitb Oshawa 88,016 106,213 -17.13% 100% Oshawa 87,538 106,213 -17.58% t00% I—, bp.".;rRZ racy,M1el�vrnm�«iaubllM 117,551 106,213 10.67% 100% KEY MAP i ;—�1 I a • r ; r I : f° li k PICNERINGUXBRIDGE�' �% POPULATION-109-31f;4� - xE:.ten P � g � I[ ) tCLARINGTON-SCI 06-BROOK I t 4 POPULAON 117 551 I TI i 3 � I o— >x ¢O - J , POPULATAION� r a, I I�'/' JIAx a _ d )09,60 °a 1 t ij Scenario 2-Federal Electoral Districts (FED) SCALE 4v Q. LEGEND OScenario 2 Municipal Boundary Urban Area Hamlet Proposed Federal Proposed FED Provincial Percentage Durham Electoral Districts(FED) Population Quota(Upper Difference to Population Limit) PQ Share Pick a erin-Uxbrid 109,344 106,213 2.95% 100% A'ax 109,600 106,213 3.19% 100% Whitb 90,747 106,213 -14.56% 100% Whitb-Oshawa 88,783 106,213 -16.43% 100% m.n :iM�v�n"w•, awKa^•n�nrnmi.^�••^�^^a�^^G^ Oshawa 92,119 106,213 -13.27% 100% Clarington-Scugog-Brock 117,551 106,213 10.67% 100% ��=•x• r�row, o • •e"e";`=�a.�x�y^ �a`a°o°g