WHEREAS during the recent municipal election, Kingsville experienced problems with the quality of the voters' list provided by MPAC;
AND WHEREAS this has been an ongoing issue for most municipalities in Ontario;
AND WHEREAS Concerns raised include long term residents not being on the list; adult children not being on the list or on it when they haven't lived at home in years; renters and other non-property owners not on the list; and long deceased individuals being on the list;
AND WHEREAS like many municipalities, Kingsville used an alternate method of voting, in our case mail-in ballot;
AND WHEREAS as a mostly rural community and without public transit, where travelling to a voting location can pose hardship to a significant segment of the population, mail-in ballot has shown itself to be particularly useful to those that find it difficult to physically get to voting locations;
AND WHEREAS the benefits of these alternate methods, however, are seriously impaired when the voters' list is of such questionable quality as is the case with the product that Kingsville received from MPAC;
AND WHEREAS the voters' list as presently maintained by MPAC is wholly insufficient to the task and not up to the quality that citizens demand from their governments;
AND WHEREAS the Town of Kingsville looks forward to working with municipalities, AMCTO, MPAC and provincial representatives to find a workable solution to the problem of maintaining the municipal election voters' list and in an effort to find a better method of maintaining the municipal voters' list;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council for the Town of Kingsville endorses and supports the attached resolution of the Town of Kearney regarding the Voters' List for Municipal Elections and supports the re-establishment of the multi-stakeholder working group between the parties outlined in the resolution to identify ways to create and maintain the Voters' List for Municipal Elections;
AND THAT a copy of this resolution be sent to AMCTO and MPP Taras Natyshak.