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Campbell River to get a bit more voting power at Strathcona Regional District table

Weighted votes are tied to population
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The Strathcona Regional Board’s voting strength is changing to reflect Campbell River’s growing population. Photo courtesy CensusMapper

Directors from the City of Campbell River are going to get a bit more say in some Strathcona Regional District matters to keep up with the city’s growing population.

Under rules set out by the Local Government Act, a region or municipality is allowed one vote per 1,500 people, or portion thereof. Since the population of Campbell River is up 2,512 people as counted in the 2021 census, that means Campbell River gets two extra votes.

These votes are not used for everything. Most of the time, the regional district directors vote using an unweighted corporate vote method, where each director gets one vote. The weighted vote is typically used for things like borrowing, contracts and service operation involving multiple participants.

Directors are only allowed to vote on matters for which the area they represent has a vested interest. This usually includes general corporate matters, as well as services for which the area contributes financially.

The change does not change the make up of the board. There will still be five directors for Campbell River. However, the votes allocated to the city will be increasing from 23 to 25, and will be divided between the directors. The maximum number of votes a director can have is five, so if the population had grown by 3,000 people the city would have been able to designate another director.

After the change, Campbell River will have 25 votes. Gold River, Sayward, Tahsis, Zeballos, Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’, and electoral areas A and B each get one vote. Electoral Area C gets two and Electoral Area D gets three.

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Strathcona rural and municipal directors disagree on recreation study



marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com

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