The purpose of the ward boundary review is ensure residents and their views are represented effectively on Council.  This will be accomplished by way of electoral boundaries that will be used when electing representatives to Oshawa City Council.  Unfortunately matters beyond the establishment of ward boundaries are out of scope and will not be addressed by the project.

Thank you for your comment. The 2018 Municipal Elections will be conducted using the new boundaries currently being developed as part of the City’s Ward Boundary Review. Preliminary boundary options are anticipated in March. We invite you to stay tuned and encourage you to participate in the 2^nd round of community consultation that will start in late March.

One of the principle challenges associated with crafting boundaries is determining how individual communities  within Oshawa can be combined in ways that ensure effective representation on City Council. The principles contained in the Terms of Reference will serve to guide the drafting of potential boundaries; however consultation and feedback from the public is also an important component of the Ward Boundary Review because no one knows the City’s neighbourhoods better than the individuals who live within them. Your opinion and observations are important and we invite you to share more information on why you feel the area south of Adelaide does not necessarily fit within the broader O’Neill community. Your comments will be shared with the Consultants who will take them into consideration when crafting potential ward boundary options.

No particular layout is being recommended or ruled out at this point in time.  Potential ward boundaries will only be drafted after consulting with the community and will be subject to another round of public consultation.  The preliminary boundaries will seek to balance the competing principles identified within the Terms of Reference while respecting the feedback provided by the public.  It may or may not be possible for strip wards to establish a system that effectively represents the City’s residents; however rejecting any potential layout from the outset would be inappropriate and lack respect for the process and any input the City’s residents may have to offer.

Thank you for your question. The public consultation sessions have not yet been scheduled; however the City’s Ward Boundary Review webpage is updated regularly and will include information on the proposed dates, times and locations for the sessions once they have been established.

A ward is a defined area established within the City and is used to elect representatives to City Council.

The City does not currently have any ward boundaries. The 2010 and 2014 elections were conducted using an at-large voting system where all electors had an opportunity to vote for every candidate seeking an office on City Council. In 2018 Oshawa will return to ward elections which requires the establishment of new boundaries. The ward boundary review will account for significant population growth and development that has occurred since the last ward boundary review was conducted in 2005 and ensure that each individual resident is effectively represented on City Council.

Ward boundary reviews are not mandatory in Ontario. They occur when there are planned changes to the way Councillors are elected (such as in 2016 in Oshawa) or where significant growth has occurred in the municipality.  The current ward boundary review is expected to establish boundaries that will be used until the next review is conducted, expected after the 2022 municipal election.

The Region of Durham committed to a review of the composition of Regional Council during this term.  The outcome of this review was unknown, but it was clear that it could have an impact on the number of representatives from Oshawa on Regional Council and potentially the number of wards established for use in Oshawa's elections.  For this reason it made sense to wait until the Region's review was complete.  We are now reasonably confident that the number of Oshawa representatives will be reduced from eight to six and have now started the process to establish the new boundaries to be used in the 2018 elections.

Following a question on the 2014 municipal election ballot, 72 per cent of those who voted requested a switch back to a ward system. Oshawa has been using an at-large system since a 2006 question saw more than 60 per cent of those who voted request a move away from the ward system, which had been in place since 1985.

City Council was not bound to move back to the ward system because less than 50 per cent of eligible voters turned out for the 2014 referendum. However, Council made it clear they were listening to those who did show up, and passed a motion in December 2014 to initiate the switch back to wards.