Saint John’s ward boundaries are released!

It’s out there now. The proposed ward boundaries have been released. The thing to keep is mind is that these boundaries are just proposed for now. They won’t be finalized until the plebiscite is successful. Afterwards, council has to adopt a bylaw that would incorporate these boundary decisions.

The boundaries were prepared by the city’s planning department and take into account a number of factors, population being most important. Each ward contains roughly 25 per cent of the city’s population.

Click on the image below to see the full picture of the boundaries:

The other development this week was the official in charge of education people about the wards says that getting 25% of the people to vote would be a success! That is just terrible news if you ask me. It’s just sick to see that people do not care about how their city is run. People care when garbage isn’t picked up on time, they care when snow isn’t being cleared, but how they don’t care about how people are elected to manage all of these things! I really hope that things improve and a majority of people do turnout. I want to see people care about the system and care enough to vote one way or another!

On a related note, the city has launched it’s education campaign this week. Their website is up and running here: http://www.saintjohn.ca/haveyoursay. There isn’t much information, but I am guessing it’s just a start.

Finally, here are some quick facts about the ward plebiscite:

• Plebiscite: Oct. 9, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Advance polling: Sept. 29 and Oct. 1, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• The question: “Do you want the city to be divided into four wards of approximately equal population with two councillors to be elected by the voters of that ward, and two councillors to be elected at large?”
• Results: Any result greater than 60 per cent is binding. Any result less than 60 per cent leaves the final decision to common council.
• Information on ward boundaries, Saint John’s current voting system, the proposed mixed ward system: Website - http://www.saintjohn.ca/HaveYourSay; e-mail - HaveYourSay@saintjohn.ca; information line - 633-2015
• Information on voting: 632-6828, or SaintJohnClerk@elections.nb.ca
• More at the TJ’s article here!