Article content continued

“You don’t have the one-to-one interaction that you would like to have when you have 110,000 people in your ward. You just can’t do it. Staff can (help), but many people get a little perturbed because I’m not the one responding, but I can’t do it because of the demands.”

City councillors already face a significant workload when it comes to the size of their electoral districts. By comparison, around 26 provincial MLAs represent roughly the same geographic area that is covered by 14 city councillors.

The maximum population deviation allowed between districts under Canadian law is 25 per cent, but city clerk Laura Kennedy says the city will be taking steps to rebalance ward populations sooner rather than later.

“In the south it’s jumping leaps and bounds,” said Kennedy. “It is definitely going to be closer to the 25 per cent (threshold), which would mean a ward boundary adjustment would have to occur.”

Kennedy said the city will be proposing some changes to ward boundary policies in October, along with a recommendation to council as to whether a minor or major redrawing of boundaries is warranted in time for the 2021 municipal election.

“You’re doing sort of a forecast into the future,” Kennedy said. “So if this is the largest ward right now, where will it be in six years? Well, it’s consistently grown by 3,000 people every year so it’s likely to need some adjustment.”

Calgary’s ward boundaries were last redrawn ahead of the 2017 election following a fraught process that saw city council dismiss some of the recommendations made by an independent commission.