It’s looking like Chatham-Kent’s council will be smaller after the next municipal election.
The current mayor and council met on Monday where they approved having the number of representatives drop from 18 to 15 (mayor and 14 councillors).
A final bylaw still needs to be approved before this change becomes permanent. This vote is slated to happen on January 27, 2025.
"It gets us more aligned with best practices. At 18, we're a complete outlier as far as of number of councillors per person," said Mayor Darrin Canniff.
This change was far from unanimous. Councillors Anthony Ceccacci, Lauren Anderson, Ryan Doyle, Aaron Hall, Jamie McGrail, Trevor Thompson, and John Wright voted against, while Amy Finn wasn't in attendance.
Thompson believes shrinking council will result in less people getting represented.
"You need a wide swath of people to best represent this community," he explained.
Thompson also shared his belief that decreasing the number of council spots and changing the ward bounderies could be seen as gerrymandering.
"You remove the opportunity for smaller minority peoples in the community to get represented," he added.
StrategyCorp, which has spent the past six months reviewing the boundaries and the number of representatives, recommended the municipality be split into seven wards with two councillors being elected from each.
Three of the wards would be in Chatham, keeping the city’s current representation at six councillors.
Wallaceburg would still have two councillors, however, the ward would also encompass several rural communities.
The other six councillors would represent the remaining rural communities across Chatham-Kent.
The proposed map isn’t set in stone as several councillors wanted StrategyCorp to review the boundary lines once again. Some of the issues brought up included the overall size of the new rural wards and how some residents would be closer to major hubs in other wards than their own.
StrategyCorp will be bringing back a report with potential options for the January 27 council meeting. If council can't support any options for a 15 member council at this meeting, they can once again discuss other sizes such as staying status quo.