Letter: Manitoulin elections a head scratcher to newcomer

Costs do not seem proportionate to populations

To the Expositor:

I know that when you move into a new town in the North, it is prudent to leave your southern ideologies in the south. I have certainly been made to feel welcome on the Island, but I must admit that I lack much of the history that makes Manitoulin unique politically.

When I read the article in the August edition ‘All but one Manitoulin municipality will hold election for mayor,’ I had no idea that Manitoulin Island, with a population of 14,872, consists of nine incorporated municipalities with 54 municipal officials! When I consulted Stats Canada, I found that NEMI, with a population of 2,764, has one mayor and eight councillors. In Ward 2 of NEMI there are three councillors for a population of 1,500-1,700 and a voter registry of about 1,200. In the four wards of NEMI, candidates for the eight positions seem to bounce around, not with any desire to “represent” the people of a particular ward but rather hedging their bets at the best chance of being elected or “acclaimed.”

In Ward 2 there are three seats and five candidates. How is it that two of these candidates either live in another ward or in the Golden Horseshoe? I find it difficult to justify their ability to represent the people of Little Current? I know that non resident property owners and spouses have the right to run for council, but who are they representing, or is that a job title of being a councillor? By contrast, two of the three remaining candidates are incumbents and the third is a member of the community, who has been tireless in attending council meetings. The mayor and council employ both a CAO and a clerk at a cost of some $315,000 annually.

Central Manitoulin has a population of 2,386 with one mayor and six councillors and unlike NEMI, has one CAO/clerk employed at a cost of about $115,900 annually. Assiginack’s population is 1,137 with six elected officials; Billings’ population is 856 with five elected officials; Burpee and Mills’ population is 404 with five elected officials; and Cockburn Island’s population is 17 with five elected officials with a municipal office in Thessalon; and Gordon Barrie Island population’s is 587 with five elected officials.

By comparison:

Sables Spanish has a population of 3,200 with seven elected officials and employs a clerk administrator at $117,000; Espanola has a population of 5,800 with seven elected officials and employed a CAO/Clerk at a salary of $146,571; and Sudbury has 12 wards and 12 councillors and a population of 192,000.

The ratio, not only of population to the number of elected officials but also the cost of CAO/clerks per capita, is out of control on Manitoulin Island or are these the musings of an old man with a cynical attitude? Perhaps when 60 percent of the registered voters on the Island do not vote in Municipal Elections they as the “majority” are simply saying ‘we do not want or need representation.’

Leon Frisch

Little Current

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Costs do not seem proportionate to populations

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