The province has given the Toronto District School Board two weeks to align its trustee wards with the city’s new pared-down set of 25 council wards, or have new boundaries imposed on them.
Last week, the Ford government introduced a bill that will reduce the size of Toronto city council from 47 wards to 25. As trustee ward boundaries must mirror city council, all trustee boundaries must be realigned by August 14.
“The Board has been instructed by the Ministry of Education that it has until August 14 to review the new municipal boundaries, analyze the student population and public school electoral data, and approve a boundary realignment plan,” a statement on the TDSB’s website said Wednesday.
But the board says to rearrange trustee boundaries, it needs new data from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
“The Municipal Property Tax Assessment Corporation (MPAC) will provide updated information on public school electoral (voters) divided by 25 provincial/federal wards by August 7.”
So the board effectively has one week to make the changes, and says there will be no time to conduct any public consultation.
Twenty-two trustees sit on the Toronto District School Board, while the Toronto Catholic District School Board elects 12 trustees.
The TDSB's existing boundaries are shown in this map.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark says the decision to cut Toronto council almost in half could save the city $25 million over four years, while the NDP accused Premier Ford of wanting to meddle in the upcoming municipal election.
