New Ward Boundaries Demystified
The winds of change are blowing at Calgary City Council. (I’m sure you already knew that.)
As I stated in the preamble to my previous post about the lack of representation of Calgarians on our city council – as compared to other Canadian cities – Council is redrawing the ward maps in the gear up for the 2010 election. It looks like everything has been approved and the new ward boundaries are a go.
The only problem is: I had a hell of a time finding a map showing what the new boundaries actually are. The old map is okay in this regard – albeit a little hard to read – but the new map (PDF) doesn’t even have any discerning marks to help you figure out what’s what. No roads marked, or rivers, or anything actually. Just big blotches of muted colour. Plus it looks like it a lo-res scan of a crappy overhead. (Yup, the people who decided this was the best copy they had to make available to the public are making decisions with our tax dollars. Sigh…)
Even if you recognize what ward you now live in on the new map how do you tell what has actually changed? Well, I decided to just take matters into my own hands and make something that would help us find our way. So here is a map showing the old boundaries (black borders) and the new ones (colour fills).
I admit it’s not a very good rendering but considering the source material the City has put out to work with it is the best we’ve got so far. I look forward to seeing something official – and of better quality – “eventually”.
PS – I’m changing aldermen. Who do I bitch at in the interim? (Kidding!)
Lack of representation on Calgary City Council and the New Wards
Yes, it is true – despite much protesting from Alderman Andre Chabot – the City of Calgary has decided to change it’s Ward maps for 2010. This was done, from what I understand, to create a more balanced work-load among alderman, as some Wards have grown larger than others in recent years.
Personally, I really liked Ald. Chabot’s suggestion that maybe it is time for the City to add two more alderman to the fold. The city has grown by leaps and bounds since the number of aldermen was expanded to 14 in 1976. (Here come the numbers!) In fact the population has more than doubled in that time! (470,043 people in 1976 to 988,193 in 2006.)
Council barely batted an eye at Chabot’s suggestion however. So I thought I’d do a little research to see what the top 25 most populous Canadian cities let pass for democratic representation. Here’s my chart in all of it’s Wikipedia researched glory:
| Municipality | Population 2006 | # of Councillors (not incl Mayor) | # Citizens Represented | |
| Toronto | 2,503,281 | 44 | 56,893 | |
| Montreal | 1,620,693 | 64 | 25,323 | |
| Calgary | 988,193 | 14 | 70,585 | |
| Ottawa | 812,129 | 23 | 35,310 | |
| Edmonton | 730,372 | 12 | 60,864 | |
| Mississauga | 668,549 | 11 | 60,777 | |
| Winnipeg | 633,451 | 15 | 42,230 | |
| Vancouver | 578,041 | 10 | 57,804 | |
| Hamilton | 504,559 | 15 | 33,637 | |
| Quebec City | 491,142 | 37 | 13,274 | |
| Brampton | 433,806 | 10 | 43,381 | |
| Surrey | 394,976 | 8 | 49,372 | |
| Halifax | 372,679 | 23 | 16,203 | |
| Laval | 368,709 | 21 | 17,558 | |
| London | 352,395 | 19 | 18,547 | |
| Markham | 261,573 | 8 | 32,697 | |
| Gatineau | 242,124 | 17 | 14,243 | |
| Vaughan | 238,866 | 5 | 47,773 | |
| Longueuil | 229,330 | 26 | 8,820 | |
| Windsor | 216,473 | 10 | 21,647 | |
| Kitchener | 204,668 | 6 | 34,111 | |
| Burnaby | 202,799 | 8 | 25,350 | |
| Saskatoon | 202,340 | 10 | 20,234 | |
| Regina | 179,246 | 10 | 17,925 | |
| Richmond | 174,461 | 8 | 21,808 | |
So is City Council just rearranging the deck chairs on their democratically challenged Titanic?
A quick look at these number and the first thing that should jump out at you is: in the entire country, Calgarians are the most under-represented on their City Council. In fact, the second most under-represented citizenry are about 10,000 people shy of our mark. That’s 15% less representation we have than the second worst offending city in the country?! That number is surprisingly high.
Another way to look at this would be to say our aldermen are that much more overworked than their colleagues elsewhere in the country. Or our aldermen have that much less time to work on local issues.
No matter how you look at it the time has come to address the number of aldermen on council. With the population growing more that 100% since we added any additional representation of Calgarian’s to our own council. And isn’t easing the work-load what prompted Council to take a look at re-zoning the Wards in the first place?
I only hope we’re not too late, and that Council hasn’t closed the book on this topic yet. This situation must be looked at and taken into account.
(PS – The second thing that may jump out at you is that boy howdy! do Quebecers love them some big government! Almost every Quebec city is at the top of the list for number of councillors per capita. That might explain a lot about their closely guarded cultural identity. But that’s a topic for some grad student’s thesis.)
Did Bronco suddenly go insane while I was tying my shoes?
I guess I blinked or something because $1.3 billion was just spent by the City of Calgary in one day. And at the very first council meeting! And with four alderman who have only had their jobs for three weeks!
Well, it seems that while I was in the bathroom Bronconnier quickly fulfilled the lion’s share of his campaign promises. Wowie-zowie, talk about fast. All I knew was that he wanted to extend the LRT to the west and build three new recreation centres. Well, that’s about as much as the alderman know too apparently. Even after the pile of money was carted off to Calgary Transit in wheelbarrows that’s still about as much as anyone seems to know.
I can’t help but think we’re a little short on the details here. How does something that just three weeks ago that was merely a campaign promise turn into sound legislation so quickly? (Hell, the federal Liberals promised to scrap the GST in 1993 before being voted in and we’re still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.)
Should that large an amount of money be spent with so little public input? Where will the rec centres go exactly? Seriously, shouldn’t we actually at least talk about the possibility of the West LRT going to Mount Royal and the Currie Barracks (with their soon to be ridiculously – by Calgary standards – high density)? I didn’t even have enough time to walk to city hall let alone talk to my alderman about the options before the mayor signed a giant novelty cheque.
Maybe its just me, but I’m starting to think Bronconnier might be certifiably insane. And the aldermen are just frightened schoolgirls when he ‘gets that crazy look in his eyes’. I like Bronco, don’t get me wrong. I think a little bit of crazy is a good thing. But it seems like very little due diligence was done here. And for something Bronco himself calls “a tipping point in city history” none-the-less. I have to agree with Naheed Nenshi on this one: WTF Mr. Mayor?
PS – Can anybody tell me if there is enough money left over in this infrastructure funding to fix the pothole in the alley out back of my place? If you pay for the dirt and can lend me a shovel I’m happy to do it myself. No? No more money? Okay, umm… thanks anyway.
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