Ward system commission going forward

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on August 10, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge city council on Tuesday gave third reading to a bylaw establishing a commission to examine the establishment of a ward system here.

The item was the first on the list at a special council meeting which mainly focused on homeless camps and a potential site for a temporary sober shelter.

Bylaw 6374 was prepared using the framework presented at the June 7 meeting of city council. At that meeting, council approved a one-time budget of up to $297,000 for the commission.

The third reading on Tuesday was approved unanimously shortly after the meeting started. Councillor Rajko Dodic was absent from the meeting.

The bylaw establishes the electoral ward boundary commission as a council committee. That commission is being empowered to “examine, analyze, engage stakeholders and produce a final report on the use of a ward system to be submitted to council.”

The commission will examine numerous matters including if the city would benefit from a ward system. It will also consider the number of wards and number of councillors per ward. It will also look at a possible hybrid system which includes councillors-at-large and running in a specific ward.

Boundaries and the number of electors per ward will also be considered as well as future growth projections for the cities and significant barriers, both natural and man-made.

The commission will draft an electoral ward boundary council policy that delineates processes and procedures for establishing, reviewing and adjusting ward boundaries in the future.

The commission will include eight members, seven of them voting members appointed from the general public by council.

Several skills and backgrounds will be considered by council for appointments. The City Clerk will be a non-voting member of the commission while the chair and vice chair will be appointed by commission members at their first meeting.

A non-binding question on the ballot of last fall’s municipal election asked voters “do you support using a ward system to elect city councillors (other than the mayor) starting with the 2025 municipal election?”

Of the 28,348 who voted – which was about 35 per cent of eligible voters – 55.69 per cent voted “yes” while 44.31 per cent voted “no” to the non-binding question.

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