City of Sault Ste. Marie wants your feedback on proposed ward boundary changes

If approved by city council, the proposed changes would reduce the number of Sault Ste. Marie's wards from six to five. (JairusPatterson/CTVNorthernOntario)

The City of Sault Ste. Marie is changing its ward boundaries for the next municipal election in 2018 and its looking for input from the public.

On Wednesday and August 2, City Hall is hosting open houses to showcase the proposed new wards.

Currently, there are six wards. The proposal would make it five.

"The proposed boundary changes to create a five ward system have been designed bearing in mind the following guiding principles: representation by population; communities of interest and neighbourhoods; present and future population trends; and physical features as natural boundaries," reads a statement from the city.

"All of these are subject to the overriding principle of effective representation as enunciated by the Supreme Court of Canada. At this stage the proposed boundaries are in draft form pending further community input."

All feedback from the public events will be taken into consideration before council votes on the proposed changes next month.

"An open house forum is the best forum to allow for that feedback, because they can have an interaction with us to discover why we did things a certain way and what criteria we took into consideration to make those boundary changes," explained Malcolm White, city clerk.

To go along with the boundary changes, there will also be a reduction in the number councillors as well, from 12 to 10.