Public Meetings To Consider Electoral District Boundaries

The City will hold four public meetings — each in a different section of the city — to present and receive feedback on various options for re-dividing the City’s existing electoral district boundaries.

“Kingston has grown a great deal since amalgamation in 1998 and the electoral boundaries need to be reconsidered to better reflect the current distribution of the population,” says John Bolognone, City Clerk.

Six options for re-dividing the existing electoral boundaries will be presented at each of the following meetings:

• Kingston East — 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 14 at the Gore Road Fire Hall, 211 Gore Rd.
• Kingston Central — 6: 30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16 in Memorial Hall, City Hall, 216 Ontario St.
• Kingston North — 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21 in the Glenburnie Fire Hall, 1485 Unity Rd.
• Kingston West — 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 23 in the Rona Room at the INVISTA Centre, 1350 Gardiners Rd.

Doors will open at 6:15 p.m. and formal staff presentations will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Jan. 14 and 21 meetings and at 7 p.m. at the Jan. 16 and 23 meetings. Those who wish to speak following the staff presentation are being asked to register at the welcome table ahead of the meeting. Each speaker will be given five minutes.

The boundary options are also available for review until January 31.

Continued growth in northwest and east sections of the urban part of the city has created a population imbalance that varies by more than 39 per cent variance between the district with the highest population and the average and by 29 per cent between the district with the lowest population and the average of all the districts. Current best practice dictates that electoral district boundaries be reviewed when such variances are more than 25 per cent and when the boundaries have not changed since amalgamation.