The way future Innisfil councils will be comprised is coming into sharper focus.
A series of open houses were held Sept. 19 at the Innisfil ideaLAB & Library Lakeshore Branch in Alcona, inviting the public to see the options put together by consultants Watson & Associates, in partnership with Dr. Robert Williams and the ad hoc Ward Boundary Review Committee.
Five options were presented for public feedback, which all keep the basic composition of council the same: a mayor, deputy mayor and seven ward councillors.
The make-up of those wards will be the biggest change for the 2026 election and beyond. It’s also posed the biggest challenge, said Clerk Patty Thoma.
“The representation, it’s a very difficult process, because Innisfil is one of the fastest growing communities in Simcoe County,” she said. “It’s large geographically, so one of the things they’re looking at is how and where the population is going to grow.”
With a population nearing 49,000 people, a perfect situation would see Innisfil’s wards be split seven ways, with each councillor being responsible for 7,000 constituents when the dust settles on the 2026 election.
The first option proposed finds that parity, but in the process became the least popular choice among members of the committee.
This option sees four wards of relative geographic similarity, clustered around Lefroy and Alcona. The remaining three wards would cover significantly more ground, including all of Friday Harbour and Sandy Cove, the remaining land abutting the Lake Simcoe shoreline and finally one rural ward, encompassing approximately three-quarters of the physical land in the municipality, including Cookstown, Churchill and Stroud.
The committee was concerned it could be difficult for one councillor to give an accurate voice to the rural concerns of the community at town hall, Thoma said. It also wondered if one ward was the best way for the lakeshore residents to get their opinions heard as well.
“You look at the lakeshore, it’s a very important piece of Innisfil,” she said. “Not just the residents’ side, but also people who would consider running as a candidate, how they’re able to represent those people and those specific areas that are distinctive and very important to our community. Ensuring there’s representation for the rural community, for the lakefront community, for economic and business community.”
Each of the five options was graded based on the guiding principles set out at the start of the process:
- Representation by population — Ensure that residents are equitably represented, have comparable access to their elected representative, and the wards have reasonably equal population totals.
- Future population trends — Take account of anticipated population growth in Innisfil, specifically over a two-election cycle (2026, 2030) and beyond.
- Protecting communities and neighbourhoods of interest — Consider residential and commercial clusters but also geographic, social, historical, economic, and/or cultural factors, including the identifiable rural and agricultural component of the Town of Innisfil.
- Respecting physical features or natural barriers as boundaries — Ward boundaries will be drawn impartially and with consideration for natural and man-made features within the Town of Innisfil that may serve as effective internal boundaries.
- Ensuring effective voter representation — The four articulated principles contribute to achieving the over-arching principle of effective representation.
Population plays a huge factor in the overall success of the review. The research from Watson and Associates showed that in 2016, none of the seven wards met the standard of being within plus or minus five points of the optimum representative standard. Improvements had been made by the 2022 election, as demographics changed, but the disparity remained an issue.
Option 1 arguably received the best score from the consultants, being largely successful in achieving three of the five principles and partially successful in representation by population.
All five options were found to respect physical features or natural barriers as boundaries.
The two choices in Option 3 scored well also, with Option 3A bringing back all positive scores: largely successful in two principles, partially successful for future population trends, but respecting representation by population.
This was the option the committee gravitated toward, Thoma said.
“I think one of the things the committee was looking at, and they had in their discussions at the last meeting, was potentially, in their final recommendation to council, taking a look at the options and making that recommendation so we have a good balance for the upcoming election in 2026 and 2030 and then maybe shifting to one of the other options for 2030 or 2034, depending on how that growth occurs and if it occurs in the time frame we’re anticipating,” she said.
By 2034, the population of the town could hit 63,000 if all estimates come to fruition, including maybe 8,000 alone in the Orbit development, essentially creating the need for a ward councillor of its own just to handle the concerns of its constituents.
However, it’s one thing to create the best system of municipal government for the residents of Innisfil. It’s another thing entirely to actually get them to go out and vote.
In 2022, fewer than a quarter of the eligible electors in Innisfil cast a ballot in the municipal election. Thoma is one of the people charged with trying to improve that number in 2026.
She didn’t mince words about the turnout.
“The lousy turnout at the last election, that was very disappointing,” Thoma said. “I thought we had worked really hard to drive and encourage people out. But it wasn’t just us. Across the province there was lethargy. People just didn’t care.”
Innisfil’s voter turnout was aligned with the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, which each saw fewer than 25 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot during the Oct. 2022 elections. Locally, Barrie was at 30.45 per cent and Bradford West Gwillimbury was at 33.8%.
The numbers have been steadily falling during the past three elections. For a town the size of Innisfil — with the issues it faces as it grows — 7,949 voters just weren’t good enough.
“This council created the electoral engagement committee and the clerk’s team went back to the drawing board to say, ‘OK, how can we do this better?’” Thoma said.
“So, working with the electoral engagement committee, it’s trying to put together opportunities to reach the public in different ways and also crossing ages. Having a youth session on the same day as a ward boundary session gets the different ages groups talking to each other.”
Thoma said the town was happy with the numbers that had pre-registered for both the ward boundary open house and the youth government session. The two events were also booked for the same day last April, and attendance for both increased this time around.
The ward boundary committee meets Oct. 2 to review the comments from the public and prepare a final recommendation to council, which should be heard in November. As long as the subsequent bylaw passed by council isn’t appealed, the new boundaries will be in place in time for the 2026 election.
More council changes could be in store for 2026. Once the wards are settled, staff will go to council with a proposal to strike an ad hoc council compensation committee to ensure the salaries of the mayor and council are equitable to similar municipalities and fair for the work being asked of each elected official.
More information on the ward boundary review is available on the town’s Get Involved page. The displays from the open house are also available to view in person at the Cookstown branch of the Innisfil ideaLAB & Library.
