Midhurst/March 25, 2025 – The County of Simcoe continues to be a highly efficient and effective level of government, serving its residents extremely well and working cooperatively with a range of partners and multiple levels of government. While our decisions on regular County business, services and programs usually demonstrate unity among our Councillors, we have long deliberated the matter of Council composition.
During our meeting today, 17 of our 32 Councillors chose to demonstrate their concerns regarding a specific by-law which would adjust the size of County Council, add a full-time Warden, and redistribute the weighted vote. This demonstration was in the form of temporarily leaving the Council Chamber. Their absence from the vote led to a loss of quorum forcing the adjournment of the meeting, and therefore this particular matter is deferred. As remaining items from the March 25 Council agenda require time-sensitive funding decisions, we will be holding a special virtual meeting of Council on March 26, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. to address those matters only.
Regarding the loss of quorum, our Councillors are all highly principled and do what they feel is in the best interest to represent their residents, communities and the Simcoe County region. Some elected officials are concerned about representation at County Council. While I personally understand their position, I do not agree with it; I believe the voices of all communities will still be heard. I am from a small community myself, and I am supportive of this change to reduce the size of County Council while redistributing our weighted vote structure, which is rarely used but does provide effective representation by population based on electorates.
We will work with our Clerk’s department to confirm options for a path forward related to the Council composition process. Until we have those details confirmed, the matter of Council composition is deferred to a future meeting.
As we saw after today’s brief demonstration, Committee of the Whole proceeded and Councillors progressed the important business of representing the people of Simcoe County and discussing services, programs, investments and decisions for our region. I expect Councillors will do the same moving forward, continuing to put residents first.
Basil Clarke
Warden, County of Simcoe