The City of Clarence-Rockland is organizing 2 series of public consultations to seek the community's opinion and support for the ward boundary revisions scheduled for summer 2025. One of them is taking place on January 22 and 23, and the next consultations are scheduled for spring 2025.

Benjamin Richard - Local Journalism Initiative

Two sets of public consultations
“The ward boundary review for Clarence-Rockland is overdue, it’s been the same ward since 1998 where there was the amalgamation, with the growth we’re looking at reviewing either the whole ward system or simply readjusting” explains the City clerk Monique Ouellet, “so at this moment we’re collecting comments from the public as to what they want to see in the future [...] in terms of ward or electoral system.” Engaging the public as early as possible gives the firm hired to review the boundaries as well as the council a better idea of what citizens hope to see for new boundaries.

A team of consultants hired by the City
One of the consultants on hand to address the population was Dr. Robert J. Williams, he explains that, “it is an attempt to keep the review independent of both elected officials and staff, in the sense that staff are often concerned about how their recommendations might be perceived by council”. The consultants have begun the process of drawing up the new boundaries in collaboration with the city, but hope to have the public's opinion to offer the community a plan based on citizens' expectations. Dr. Williams narrows the public inquiry to a simple question by asking “You’ve got a system, do you like it or not? And if you do, what do you like about it? If you don’t, what do you think needs to be addressed?”