Doug Ford’s decision – during last year’s Provincial election campaign - to cut the size of Toronto City Council by half could end up in the Supreme Court. 

Earlier today, the City announced it would appeal against a 3-2 decision of Ontario’s Court of Appeal which held the cut in Council size was lawful.

The Appeal Court’s decision on 19 September 2019 didn’t get the coverage it deserved as everyone was distracted by the Federal election. We shall see how it all pans out.

Last month Ford dropped his contentious plans to reform regional government and we can all breath a huge sigh of relief.

Regional reform would have been a monumental distraction.

Electing the Regional Chair: Back on the Agenda

But for York Region it also resurrects the issue of whether the Regional Chair (currently Wayne Emmerson) should be elected by the voters at large or by the 21 members of the Regional Council. There is now nothing to stop the Regional Council asking the Province for permission to have the Regional Chair directly elected as from the next election.

The former Liberal MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, Chris Ballard, championed direct election for years while the newly elected MP for Newmarket-Aurora, Tony Van Bynen, has always set his face against it. Personally, I can’t see Van Bynen offering an opinion now that he has other things to think about in Ottawa but who knows?

Toronto's press release says this: The City of Toronto today filed an application with the Supreme Court of Canada to seek Leave to Appeal a decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal regarding Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act, 2018. In September, the Ontario Court of Appeal's majority opinion ruled 3-2 that the legislation that reduced the City's wards from 47 to 25 in the middle of the 2018 election was constitutional. In January 2019, Toronto City Council directed staff "to pursue a Leave to Appeal application to the Supreme Court of Canada in the event the Province is successful on its appeal at the Court of Appeal." The City has now done so and will await the Court's decision on whether to hear the appeal. Should the Court grant the application, legal arguments will be led by City of Toronto in-house counsel. The application is available online.

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