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The Lindsay Post is running a weekly series of questions, with answers by both the "Yes" and "No" sides of the issues.
Question #18:
How important is it that municipal candidates declare their position on the referendum question?
Municipal election day, November 10th, will be unique in the history of our community, and quite likely, in the history of Ontario. The councillor candidate who bangs a campaign sign into his front lawn is running for one of two jobs. If elected, he will be either a councillor for the City of Kawartha Lakes for a three year term, or a councillor on an interim council for a term of one year on our way to a newly created two tier system of municipal government.
On November 12th, 2002, when Chris Hodgson was Minister of Municipal Affairs, he outlined a process that would begin if the result of the referendum question is "Yes" to de-amalgamate. The current Minister, David Young, has confirmed this process.
The interim council will begin the task of recreating an upper-tier County government and the 16 lower tier municipalities that existed before 2001, and the orderly distribution of assets and liabilities among these 17 new municipal corporations, including the County. After the one year transition period there will be by-elections for 16 new municipal councils.
Councillors on the current council who are seeking re-election have made no secret about whether or not they support the single tier City of Kawartha Lakes concept. First-time candidates will have to decide for themselves whether they want to declare themselves clearly as "Yes" or "No" supporters. If they do want to tell us how they'll vote, it's purely voluntary on their part. It will be a secret ballot after all, and candidates for municipal office should enjoy the same rights as their fellow citizens.
What they do not have, however, is the luxury of keeping silent on how they will respond to the referendum result depending on the outcome of the vote. Candidates must be prepared to be in it for the long haul (three years) if the result is "No". Similarly, a candidate has to be flexible enough to realize that his or her job might end after only one year if the result is a "Yes" vote.
The transition councillor will require a different set of skills than, say, his counterpart in Peterborough or Durham counties. Not only must he be prepared to participate in the orderly reconstruction of a two tier system of government, but also he has to be prepared to deliver good government to taxpayers during the City of Kawartha Lakes' last year of existence. Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, the council (transition or otherwise) will face significant challenges. City debt is climbing, reserves are shrinking, deficits in the operating and capital budgets have to be addressed, and taxes will likely have to be raised even more next year to make up for artificially keeping taxes as low as possible in this referendum year.
If we're lucky the new Council will have the audited financial statements for 2002 as their first order of business. The 2003 audit will have to wait for another year. And taxation inequities will loom over the council as a constant reminder of the failure of amalgamation.
Whether a candidate votes "Yes" or "No" is his own business. How the rest of us vote becomes that councillor's marching orders. He or she must be prepared to abide by the result of the referendum regardless of whether or not he or she approves of the outcome of the vote. There will be no room for second guessing the electorate. The people will have spoken and, in a democracy, the people are never wrong.