Counties agrees to give Clarence-Rockland its extra vote

Although the City of Clarence-Rockland was successful in convincing seven other mayors to hand over its long-awaited extra vote around the counties council table, it has done little to quiet the municipality's talk of severing its ties with the United Counties of Prescott-Russell.

Much to the surprise of Clarence-Rockland Mayor Richard Lalonde, all eight mayors unanimously supported a bylaw that removes the maximum weighted voting cap of five votes per municipality, bringing Clarence-Rockland's total number of votes up to six.

"I don't want to say too much or create a debate," Lalonde said after the bylaw was passed. "This reform has been a long time coming. Two previous mayors demonstrated that the formula wasn't good. It may have been me who pushed this, but we will all benefit in the long run."

Previously, municipalities were awarded votes based on every 3,000 eligible electors. Municipalities with 3,000 or less electors carried one vote; 3,000 to 6,000 electors carried two votes, 6,000 to 9,000 electors carried three votes, 9,000 to 12,000 electors carried four votes and municipalities like Clarence-Rockland, which has more than 15,000 electors, carried five votes.

With the passage of the bylaw, the five-vote cap has been lifted and the number of votes afforded to each municipality will continue to increase per 3,000 eligible electors.

The weighted voting formula is applied each time a mayor asks for a recorded vote on an issue at council.

In order to change the bylaw, the UCPR had to hold two public meetings on the issue. The meetings were held in Rockland and L'Orignal in April and were poorly attended by members of the public.

Much of both meetings focused on Clarence-Rockland's recent announcement that it hopes to hold a referendum as part of the October 25 municipal election, asking its taxpayers if they would support the city splitting from the UCPR.

"Our taxpayers have had enough [of the unfairness] and don't want to deal with it anymore," said Clarence-Rockland Ward 1 Councillor Michel Thivierge. "If we get our extra vote, maybe we'll stay with the UCPR, maybe not. We'll have to wait and see."

The city has submitted a request to Jim Bradley, provincial minister of municipal affairs and housing, seeking permission to hold a referendum. The municipality has until June 1 to formulate and submit the referendum question.

Lalonde said he isn't sure if securing an additional vote for his municipality will do much, if anything, to sway his council colleagues away from the referendum issue.

"The members of my council are obviously in favour of a referendum," he commented. "It's going to be hard to change their minds now."

The municipality is scheduled to meet with Bradley in mid-May to discuss the referendum.

As for the weighted voting issue, two more conditions must be met before the changes officially come into effect.

First, a majority of mayors on counties council must get approval from their own municipal councils to accept the change.

Lalonde is confident that will happen.

"We will need five out of the eight mayors," said Lalonde. "I have a feeling it will be a 'yes."

The second condition requires the support of municipalities that make up more than 50 per cent of the entire registered voters total for Prescott-Russell.

Lalonde sees no problem with that since he already has Mayor Ken Hill of Russell Township's support for the change.

"With just Clarence-Rockland and Russell Township, we're over 50 per cent," he stated.