The Town of Amherstburg will leave discussions around moving to a ward system to the next term of council.
A motion brought forward by Michael Prue, the town’s mayor, to take the next steps towards a ward system was rejected in a 6-1 vote by council.
“It's important to have a local person who you can hold accountable, and then if that person is not accountable to you for it, it's easy to get rid of that person,” Prue explained.
Through Prue’s motion, council would have set aside $50,000 to hire a consultant to establish five new wards.
Under the current structure, Amherstburg has five councillors at-large, who share responsibility for the entire community. The wards would have one representative for each separate portion of the town.
By hiring a consultant, Prue felt council had “nothing to lose” by moving forward.
“For this council to make a decision on a matter which was sent to us by the people to decide, and that we refer whatever information we have to the incoming council,” Prue said.
During the 2022 municipal elections, 50.38% voters favoured a ward system, but due to voter turnout below 50%, the results were not binding.
In showing some support for wards, Coun. Peter Coutney felt it was “too late in the game” for council to make any decision on the change.
“I do believe this is the next council's decision to pursue if they're going to pursue that,” Courtney said.
The current term of council will continue to serve for about a year before the next municipal elections on Oct. 26, 2026.
Around the council horseshoe, members raised concerns about the cost of the report, resident interest, and being too selective about the report's scope.
A separate motion to put the question of wards back on the ballot for the 2026 election was also defeated.
Coun. Linden Crain said the current approach “is not broken,” and there’s not enough benefit to make the switch.
“I just don't want to spend taxpayers' money on another study when we saw that the results were very split,” Crain said.
Across Essex County, the towns of Essex and Tecumseh, as well as the Municipality of Lakeshore, include ward systems.
-Reporting by CTV Windsor's Robert Lothian