Mattawa’s deputy mayor thinks council could use a trim, but few agreed.
To save money, Mattawa’s Deputy Mayor Mathew Gardiner, suggested the town’s council be trimmed down from seven to five members. For many years, council has consisted of one Mayor and six councillors, but Gardiner suggested this be reduced when the next municipal election comes in the fall of 2026.
Doing so would save the municipality around $23,000 per year, Gardiner noted in a report to council.
Gardiner emphasized, “This would be for the next election, so it wouldn’t affect anybody at the table now. The changes have to be made, if council is supportive of that, by December 31, the year proceeding the next election.”
The proposal caught Councillor Laura Ross by surprise. She told council, “I’ve never heard this spoken of at all, and I had many people contact me over the weekend who were absolutely not in favour of this. I think the composition we have here is very good and I think it represents our municipality very well.”
Ross also noted that with less councillors, more committee work would fall to those remaining at the table. She emphasized, “I’m definitely not in favour of this.”
Gardiner’s report to council provided some stats from neighbouring communities, including Mattawan, Calvin and Papineau-Cameron Townships, Bonfield, Powassan and West Nipissing. Deep River and East Ferris were also included.
He found that the of those communities, the average population was 3,641, with an average council of four councillors and one mayor. Gardiner noted that worked out to one councillor for every 545 people. In Mattawa, that current ratio is one councillor for every 269 residents.
Those numbers did not inspire many councillors to agree with Gardiner’s reduction. Councillor Bigelow agreed the motion should be brought back for further discussion. However, most agreed with Ross’s point of view. Councillor Fern Levesque was quite clear: “I’m not supporting it.”
Gardiner explained, “I’ve got some rebuttals for everybody here. Maybe not the time and the place, but we are paid very well at this table, and some of us do earn a little more of that than others. Some of us bring a lot of initiatives to the table. Some of us show up to the meetings, cast their votes, and then go home, and can barely read an agenda.”
He also suggested he’d be fine if everyone took a pay cut to reduce council’s cost. However, Gardiner also suggested fewer councillors would be more efficient. “We have seven council members, and we talk everything around the table for hours on end. We don’t get anything done. So, the idea is less people will get better results for our community.”
Gardiner continued, “You’re going to have to look at the constituents and tell them that you’re putting the diversity of this table ahead of their financial well-being. Because a $100,000 per term [to pay council] is a hell of a lot of money.”
Gardiner elaborated, “You can run a lot of programs with that money, you can do a lot to help seniors and children, and beautification, and sports. You can do a lot with that money. Instead, it’s going to sit in councillor’s pockets.”
Sensing tension at the table, Mayor Raymond Bélanger encouraged council “To breath a bit. This report is a good report, and it should be discussed. Fiscal responsibility. We all talked about it. And this is part of that.”
A vote was called to have the clerk prepare some more information on the matter and bring it back to a future council meeting. That was defeated four votes to three, so the subject is closed for now.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.