Council sets new ward boundaries for Caledon

By Rob Paul

Three weeks ago, Council settled on an option for the ward boundary review, but asked consultants Dr. Robert Williams and Jack Ammendolia of Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. to take into account a few other factors. 

Having done so, Williams and Ammendolia returned with the finalized ward boundaries, which Council ultimately passed.

The decision was to go with Final Option 1, with some changes to the original. 

“Council asked us at the last meeting to go back and look at certain modifications to Final Option 1 and report back with the analysis and what some of the impacts of those modifications might be,” said Ammendolia. 

Final Option 1 is a six-ward option with a focus on communities of interest and, in the consultant's opinion, “a well-balanced approach.”

The option provided satisfactory population parity, according to Ammendolia, with some of the wards being lesser in population to help keep the rural nature of the communities. 

The concern from Council was over the potential population disparity down the road with Ward 3 in particular— the Mayfield West area — being double the optimum population by 2031.

Due to these concerns, they asked the consultants to return with alternate options to Final Option 1. 

Taking into account the different concerns, Williams and Ammendolia returned with three alternatives to Final Option 1 to help offset the population disparity issues. The final decision was to go with alternate option B of Final Option 1 with an amendment to add Campbells Cross to Ward 1, which was originally part of Ward 3.

This was the alternative the consultants found had the least overall impact on potential population parity issues down the road.

This Final Option 1B moved a portion of Ward 4 into Ward 2, which in turned moved around 500 residents to Ward 2 to help with keeping solid lines in the ward boundaries. This change extends Ward 2 west from Humber Station Road to the Gore Road and will now contain the Village of Albion. 

“From a population perspective, it's not a big change in terms of population parity when looking at that area,” said Ammendolia. “From the consultant's perspective, it's not a huge impact from a population perspective. When we look at the area we've been asked to change when we look at it from our knowledge, there's not a big impact on the guiding principles that have framed this study.” 

The population within Final Option 1B—without including the shift of Campbells Cross into Ward 1—splits with 11,795 in Ward 1, 8,860 in Ward 2, 15,335 in Ward 3, 9,410 in Ward 4, 10,600 in Ward 5, and 19,450 in Ward 6. 

To help with keeping the community at Campbells Cross together, the amendment was then made to move it into Ward 1 as a whole to stop it from being dissected and split in the new wards. This was a concern Councillor Johanna Downey voiced and led to the amendment.

“Moving all of that into Ward 1 would not be a significant change in terms of population,” said Ammendolia. “The population parity impact wouldn't be extreme.”

As part of the ward boundary changes, Council's makeup for the next election will change as well. Currently it's made up of a Mayor, four regional Councillors, and four area Councillors.

Under the new format there will be an area Councillor representing each of the six wards and two regional Councillors with one representing Wards 1, 3, and 4 and the other representing Wards 2, 5, and 6.

On November 26, 2020, Peel Regional Council adopted a resolution regarding its composition that changed the number of Brampton's representatives from 11 to nine and for Caledon from five to three.

This, along with the ward changes, is why the makeup of Council is being adjusted.

Prior to the conclusion of the special Council meeting, Mayor Allan Thompson and Councillor Nick deBoer said they're pleased with the decision on the new set ward boundaries but voiced their concerns regarding the more restrictive new Regional Council format and how it will impact decision making that effects Caledon. 

“I think it's very important after we've concluded now for the residents to know we're going to have three representatives at the Regional Council where the Region of Peel is going to make the planning decisions for Caledon,” said deBoer. “We're going to have an unprecedented amount of growth where it's going to be Brampton and Mississauga in the current situation making essentially the decision where we're going to have three representatives. We really need the residents of Caledon to contact Minister Jones' office and voice their concerns with the fact that we're not going to have the level of participation and the level of control that we should be allowed knowing that this is the way this is moving forward. As far as representation and how Caledon is going to grow, we've always had the position that Caledon plans Caledon. We're certainly moving in a direction that's contrary to the way history has always been.”

“This is why the planning needs to be done at the lower level, not decided at the Region,” said Thompson. “The Region still ratifies everything, but both Brampton and Mississauga do all their localized planning and it just gets approved at the Region, where here in Caledon decisions go to the Region and we've lost control of it. We need to basically ask them to give us the localized planning we need to be done at the lower level, so Caledon still plans Caledon. This is definitely something we need to ask for—I know Brampton would like a little more parity at the local level—Mississauga has the triple majority, and this is going to make it a little more difficult.”

The next steps for the final approval of the new ward boundaries is from the necessary by-laws to be brought forward at an upcoming Council meeting.