Municipal Electoral Boundary Review
On November 27, 2019, Council made the decision to reduce the number of Councillors to 8, and switch to a Mayor for council leadership. Follow the links below for the new districts:
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB), following a hearing on February 20, 2020, approved the application for the change in council districts and leadership in their April 16, 2020 decision, available here:
MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE & ELECTORAL BOUNDARY REVIEW
Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of democracy in Nova Scotia. Municipalities play a vital role in the electoral process by recommending the size of municipal council and the polling districts from which municipal councillors are elected. Municipalities also choose whether municipal leadership is an elected Mayor or an appointed Warden.
Following the dissolution of the Town of Parrsboro the Municipality of Cumberland has been asked by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) to conduct another electoral boundary review to address variances in the number of voters in polling districts.
Two Step Process
In conducting this report, staff are following the two-step process recommended by the NSUARB.
Step 1: Council first determines the desired number of councillors (i.e., the size of council) and whether leadership should continue with a Warden or switch to a Mayoral system.
Determining the size of council involves the consideration of the desired style and governance structure of Council, and a determination of an effective and efficient number of councillors. The NSUARB suggests that the style of government is a question which should not be decided by council until adequate public consultation has occurred respecting the expectation of its constituents. The size of council and its governance structure is a matter which can then be determined by Council in an informed debate.
Step 2: The distribution of polling districts and their boundaries should be addressed in the second stage. Several factors must be addressed when determining boundaries of polling districts, including the number of electors, relative parity of voting power, population density, community of interest and geographic size.
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has determined that in municipal boundary review applications the target variance for relative parity of voting power must be ±10% from the average number of electors per polling district or ward. Any variance in excess of ±10% must be justified in writing. The larger the proposed variance, the greater the burden on the municipality to justify the higher variance.
2019 Cumberland Governance and Electoral Boundary Review Process
Following several months of public engagement and research, Planning staff presented a report on Leadership and Council Size to Council on November 4, 2019. At that meeting, Council voted to reduce the number of Councillors from 13 to 8, and switch to a Mayor for Council Leadership.
In this second part of the process, polling district boundary options have been prepared for review and comments by the public and Council. Two or three final boundary options will be presented to Council on November 27th when they will make a decision on which option, they feel is most suitable.
Planning staff have prepared four preliminary boundary options for public comment. Public comments will be shared with Council who will make a determination of which scenario they wish to use in an application to the NSUARB.
Follow the links below to view our draft electoral boundaries, and leave your feedback!
The following CBC article provides some good background and context on rural municipal governance:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tiny-towns-municipality-council-costs-analysis-1.4446875