Comment 46 – comments and feedback

John Willatt

Good evening, my name is John Willatt and I've been a resident of Chatham Kent for 32 years.

My reason for being here tonight is to ask you to revisit, and hopefully revise, your draft proposals as they affect the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

I think it's important to give you a little of the history of Chatham Kent, how it came about and how these proposed boundary changes will I think negatively affect it.

In 1994 the Mike Harris government was elected and part of their election platform was to reduce the number of Municipal Governments in Ontario.

Prior to this process being put in place the City of Chatham had been a standalone Municipality with no connection to the County of Kent, it had in fact broken away from the County of Kent in the late 1800s and resentment between the two different governments had simmered since then.

When the 401 was built Chatham was denied an exit, instead Exits 80 and 91 are on either side of the City, and both are in what was then Kent County. In the winter you would see County snow plows lift their blades as they reached the city boundary and lower them again as they left !

So when the Harris Government policy was announced the City of Chatham's position was leave us out of this - while Kent County developed two different positions,

Because there was no agreement a Commissioner was appointed, he held meetings across the area hearing from Elected Councillors and members of the public, his decision was what no one wanted - the creation of Chatham-Kent .

The result of this forced amalgamation meant bad attitudes continued during the first few terms of Council with most of the Councillors having become members of the new Council and with most of the senior Administration also being given positions in the new Administration.

Over the years things have slowly changed for the better and now most people accept that Chatham-Kent Is where they live.

However previous Boundary Commissions have not used our Municipal Boundaries as the basis for their recommendations and have left us in two different ridings divided by an east west line situated just north of Chatham.

The southern half of Chatham Kent was linked with Leamington, with which we have no real connection, while the northern half was part of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, the long thin riding that stretched from Walpole Island almost to the borders of the City of London.

My proposal is the creation of Chatham-Kent / South Lambton. This would consist of the whole of Chatham Kent and the lower part of Lambton County which sits just to the north of Chatham Kent.

This area of Lambton County, along with Walpole Island, would numerically be enough to meet the Commissions target number but I have not added these areas just to enable Chatham-Kent to reach the target number but because these areas have a real connection with Chatham Kent.

People in these areas shop in Chatham Kent, they work and bank in Chatham Kent, many of their kids attend school in Chatham Kent and they play sports in Chatham Kent - there's a real connection which is totally different to areas in the draft proposal.

If the Commission would recommend the creation of Chatham-Kent/South Lambton it would help Chatham Kent continue to develop into one united community, with just one M.P and one M.P.P working to grow C-K - the draft proposals would leave Chatham-Kent as a part of three different riding's and in my opinion hinder our growth as one community.

I hope you will reconsider your proposals.

Thank you for this opportunity to address you.