THUNDER BAY — The legislation that governs municipal elections in Ontario is in need of an overhaul.
Ontario's Municipal Elections Act (MEA) will be 30 years old by the next election and the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks, and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO), is calling for its modernization.
Coun. Kristen Oliver, the chair of the city's Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee, said this legislation needs to be brought into the 21st century.
On Monday, Oliver will bring a memorandum to council on Monday to see if they want to support AMCTO's recommendation to the province.
“When we look at how much technologies had a role in the changes that have occurred in that three-decade time frame,” Oliver told Newswatch.
AMCTO wants municipal councils to support their endeavour and ask the provincial government take a look at the MEA and make some accommodations and changes to it to reflect the digital era.
These changes to the MEA would include setting standards for online voting, updating the language to reflect the shift from paper-based processes to electronic methods, and adapting to technological changes that could affect the democratic process.
Oliver said the point is to modernize the MEA to help voters, candidates, contributors, and advertisers "so that everyone has a better understanding of what their responsibilities are.”
Furthermore, she said the modernization will help reduce the operational and administrative burden on election officials.
Because the MEA hasn’t been updated to reflect the digital era, Oliver noted that elections are incredibly work-intensive on municipal staff because of the many different formats people can vote in.
“We're now seeing more online voting and looking at how the language and everything that needs to be reflected in that shift from the paper-based processes to an electronic method and adapting to the technological changes that would affect the democratic process,” Oliver said.
“So with those recommendations or requests in mind, we understand that the people that are putting the elections on are saying we've got a lot to deal with here and how do we mitigate through all of that?
“The request is how do we modernize the Elections Act so that it streamlines the process and makes it a better use of staff time."
Oliver said AMCTO wants the updates to the MEA by mid-2025 to allow adequate time for planning ahead of the 2026 municipal elections.
They further recommend that the MEA be reviewed and updated every four years to keep pace with changing voter expectations, technology, and trends.
“I think the timelines are going to be tight. There's no doubt about it. I mean, when you're looking at a request to completely rewrite legislation, that's not an easy task. But I think that there's a committee through AMCTO that would look like to work with the government and they have those recommendations in place,” said Oliver.
“They've obviously consulted with all the municipalities and have determined where they could see with the streamlining and the process improved to make the 2026 municipal election seamless. That's the goal."
