• Premier Ford’s legislation to reduce Toronto City Council from a planned 47 wards to 25 wards will save taxpayers at least $25.5 million

TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) welcomed news today that Ontario Premier Doug Ford reducing the size of Toronto’s city council.

At a press conference in Toronto, Mr. Ford announced that he would be making amendments to the City of Toronto Act, the Municipal Act, the Municipal Elections Act, and the Education Act. The Amendments would redraw ward boundaries in the City of Toronto to go from a planned 47 wards to 25 wards that mirror federal and provincial boundaries.

“During the election, Mr. Ford told voters he would reduce the size of government, and it looks like he’s starting with Toronto politicians,” said CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn. “Rarely are things made better by having more politicians. Adding more and more people to city council hasn’t fixed any of Toronto’s big problems, nor cut property taxes. If this legislation passes, Torontonians will only have to deal with the pork-barreling pet projects of 25 city councillors instead of 47.”

The 2018 Toronto municipal elections would have been the first with 47 wards, up from 44 in 2014. The new 47 wards range in size from 28,665 people to 70,535 people. When the boundaries are changed to create 25 wards, they would be more even in population distribution, ranging from 94,579 people to 129,081 people.

“The current plan for 47 wards leaves a very unbalanced distribution of population across the wards, with some wards with low population quite overrepresented on City Council. This is distorting, and bad for democracy,” continued Van Geyn. “And the best part of this plan is that it will save taxpayers in Toronto a low estimate of $25.5 million.”