Suzanne Gammon
Tribune
Hardly anyone showed up to a public meeting on proposed changes to the 8 election wards in West Nipissing on July 10, and Municipal Clerk Melanie Ducharme says there have not been a lot of comments received online, either. Town council is reviewing the ward boundaries and residents have until August 15 to give input, with a final motion expected to come to council in September. Barring any appeals in the 45-day period after that, the changes would become official and come into effect for the 2026 municipal election.
Ducharme presented the staff recommendations during a public consultation meeting July 10, but only two residents and four council members attended. Since that time, the meeting has been posted online along with all the explanatory documentation, with people invited to submit questions and comments. As of March 22, the Clerk said only two questions were received. She believes it’s “because it affects very few people,” with no changes to the number of wards or the rural-urban mix of representation.
Ducharme says the town typically looks at ward make-up once per electoral term, and this is the first time council shows any appetite for changes. When the issue was first brought up, there was some talk of doing away with wards and having an at-large election, but that idea “never got any traction,” notes the Clerk.
Still, council did feel some tweaks were in order. “West Nipissing has had the same structure since amalgamation which was in 1999,” Ducharme explained. “We have evolved from a cluster of individual and very separate towns and townships into what’s West Nipissing” since then, she added. At the time, there was concern that representation would be skewed in favour of the more populated areas of Sturgeon Falls and Cache Bay, so the 8 wards – four rural and four urban – were created to ensure the rural communities would have a voice at council. That won’t change, Ducharme assured.
“We are not looking at any changes in the number of wards,” she stated, but rather “whether or not the boundaries of those wards that made sense in 1999, whether they still make sense today in light of population growth and demographic shift in the municipality.”
Indeed, figures showed a wide variance in the number of properties from ward to ward, with a low of 759 to a high of 1648, and in the number of eligible electors, from a low of 1053 in ward 7 to a high of 2549 in ward 2 during the 2022 election. “It’s hard to equalize when you have rural areas versus urban areas,” acknowledged Mayor Kathleen Thorne Rochon. But the goal of the review is to “get a little closer to par,” she said.
The proposed ward map does make the distribution more even, with the number of properties ranging from 1012 to 1467, according to Ducharme. The biggest shifts would be seen in Ward 1, going up 409, and Ward 2, going down 386, then Wards 5 and 6 going down by 273 and 234 respectively, with Ward 7 growing by 277 and Ward 4 by 197.
The number of eligible electors would also see less variance, with a low of 1298 in Ward 5 and a high of 2319 in Ward 2 estimated in 2026. Ducharme said these are “soft numbers” based on 2022 figures, and Ward 1 is expected to be higher due to a 92-lot subdivision underway.
In fact, “one of the main reasons we’re doing this” is the population growth in the southwest portion of Sturgeon Falls, said the Clerk. She noted that during amalgamation, “there was nobody there, it was just fields and since then we have the Demers subdivision, Riverfront, Mageau…” That area is currently in Ward 2. “Ward 2 is Cache Bay and all the way out to Beaudry Road, so that ward got really big and it was kind of lopsided,” Ducharme explained.
To address this, the plan calls for moving the upper west boundary of Ward 1 from King St. to Roy St. to equalize the number of properties between 1 and 2. “By shifting the boundary just a little bit to the west to Roy Street, it picks up a lot of development that has taken place as well as a significant amount of development which is currently underway and will be taking place in the next probably 6 months. There are two new subdivisions due to be finalized which will actually increase that Ward 1 even a little bit more,” said Ducharme.
In addition to losing that piece to Ward 1, Ward 2 would see its northern boundary extended from Gauthier Rd. to Hwy 17, a small addition taken from Ward 3 “so that Ward 3 would be all above Hwy 17 (…) to maintain those geographic divisions,” Ducharme outlined.
Ward 3 would also see a small change to its north boundary to take in both sides of Stewart and Levert Roads, which are currently split with one side included in Ward 5.
Ducharme says the most significant change would be adding all of Pedley and Beaucage Townships to Ward 4, taking them from Ward 5, better reflecting the “communities of interest.” According to the Clerk, “the people there are more closely aligned with Sturgeon Falls than Field,” which forms the vast part of Ward 5. Ducharme says during elections, people there often ask her why they are voting in Ward 5, and she points out this change would only affect about 170 residents.
In a similar move, the plan calls to remove from Ward 6 a section of Kirkpatrick Township south of Hwy 17, also to reflect communities of interest. “That section of that ward aligns more geographically and culturally and agriculturally with Verner,” so council felt it would be better represented in Ward 7 (largely Verner), Ducharme explained. “Ward 7 was and has been right from the beginning the smallest ward. By making this shift, it will actually bring Ward 7 kind of even with all of the other rural wards and not be as small population-wise as it was,” she added.
Ward 7 would also receive properties from the south side of Rainville Road, which is divided in half, one side represented by 7 and one by 8. This change would “get all the people on Rainville Road, which has a lot of residents, all into Ward 7. Again, with being an agricultural community, it keeps them together in communities of interest,” Ducharme stressed. This would be the only change to Ward 8.
Where do the islands belong?
Thorne Rochon asked about the rationale for including certain islands in Wards 2 or 8. Ducharme said this was based on old roll numbers and the islands that were part of Springer or Bertram or Caldwell Townships stayed that way, with the majority in Bertram Township, which falls into Ward 8.
Ward 8 Councillor Georges Pharand had concerns with this. “I really think that (…) if you draw a line, [from] the western boundary of Ward 8 on the mainland, you go straight down, I really think that all the islands that are west of that line, (… including) all the islands in the French River, should really be part of ward [2]”, he opined, noting that Ward 8 is already the most populated.