Pontiac council report - smaller council, new boundaries
Mo Laidlaw
A large crowd - over 40 people - attended the special council meeting on July 3, 2008. A majority of council (6:2) voted to reduce the number of councillors from seven to six and to accept proposed new ward boundaries for the next election, in November 2009. Mayor Eddie McCann explained that most of the councils in the region have an even number of councillors, which lets the mayor have the deciding vote in the case of a divided council.
Over the last few weeks discussions have taken place about how to draw the ward boundaries so that the number of electors in each ward is within 25% of the average, as required, as well as whether to change to six or eight councillors. Deciding boundaries has to be done one year before the elections. Leaving the ward boundaries as they were for the 2005 election is not an option as ward 3 (South Onslow), with 401 electors is too small, and ward 7 (Breckenridge) is too large with 831 electors.
The solution that was accepted, the fourth to be discussed, sees new wards 1 and 3 (North and South Onslow) stretch east to ch Lebrun. Ward 2 (Quyon) is unchanged. Ward 4 includes Luskville village and the beaches. Ward 6 is the area south of Maple, plus cr. Lelièvre, and ward 5 is the remaining area, north east of highway 148 from ch Lebrun to ch Maple, and south west of highway 148 between ch Pères-Dominicains / de la Rivière and ch Maple. (A detailed map is available at www.heritagepontiac.ca/carteE.gif)
Mayor McCann listed the number of electors in each new ward at present:
Ward 1: 671, ward 2: 584, ward 3: 594, ward 4: 810, ward 5: 747, and ward 6: 799. This satisfies the requirements. There will obviously be changes in numbers by November 2009. He hopes that this new electoral map will be able to be used unchanged for 8 - 12 years.
Putting aside normal procedure, council accepted questions and comments from the public during the discussion. One resident was concerned that Mayor McCann is known to favour changing from MRC des Collines to MRC Pontiac, and this would give him the deciding vote. Director-general Sylvain Bertrand explained that council does not decide this. To change MRCs there would have to be a referendum, followed by approval from Municipal Affairs. McCann also stated that reducing the number of councillors was not in order to eliminate a salary.
Current ward 1 councillor Lawrence Tracey, whose ward becomes the largest in area, said he sees no problem in dealing with such an extensive area, much of which is in Gatineau Park. He agrees that having six councillors gives the mayor more of a leadership role. For the record, he’d prefer Pontiac to stay in the MRC des Collines.
Councillors Dagenais and Middlemiss voted against the resolution.
Photo: ML
Mayor Eddie McCann and d-g Sylvain Bertrand at the meeting. Old and new electoral maps are on the wall behind them.