Things you can do when the boss asks you to check in on a really, really boring meeting at the Civic Centre:
- sketch the meeting room layout, adding inappropriate plumbing fixtures
- imagine each person attending as a comic-book character
- take pictures of Ward 3 councillor Matthew Shoemaker grinning ambiguously in the almost-empty room
- engage city staffers Malcolm White and Rachel Tyczinski in completely irrelevant gossip about what former Ward 6 councillor Jason Collins is up to these days
- determine which city councillor's face most resembles the proposed boundaries of the new Ward 3
If you don't give a ship about the redrafting of Sault Ste. Marie's ward boundaries, you're not alone.
There was a a three-hour open house about the issue this past week at the Civic Centre and 73,362 Saultites stayed away.
Of the handful who did show up, no one expressed strong reservations about the plan to redraft our municipal electoral boundaries, reducing the number of wards to five instead of six.
The decision to cut one ward - and two councillors - has already been made by City Council.
It's going to happen, in time for City Council's 2018-2022 term of office.
The tricky part is re-parceling the Sault into five wards.
That has to be done fairly to avoid a successful challenge to the Ontario Municipal Board.
- representation by population
- communities of interest
- neighbourhoods
- present and future population trends
- physical features as natural boundaries
- all of the above are subject to the overriding principle of effective representation as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada
"It's been very well received so far," said deputy CAO Malcolm White, who counted seven visitors at Wednesday's open house, including one very bored journalist and the ambiguously smiling Shoemaker.
"We've had some useful conversations," White told SooToday,
The proposed ward boundaries will be tweaked south of Wallace Terrace to accommodate a neighbourhood pointed out by Ted Hallin, White said.
"I just pointed out that it would be geographically much better to have that little tip of Ward 5 included in Ward 4....It was just an oversight," Hallin said.
Shoemaker liked Hallin's suggestion: "I thought it was good before, and it's even better based on the feedback they've received."
Another open house is planned for Wednesday, August 2, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Russ Ramsay board room on the third floor of the Civic Centre.
A final proposal for the new council composition and ward boundaries is expected to presented to City Council on August 21.