Coun. Jamie Smith and Coun. Jess Prothero weren't at the committee of the whole meeting Monday night and council decided all members should be present for a vote.
At a meeting Nov. 3, council voted in favour of looking at the town’s five wards.
Before the talk was postponed, however, a few councillors squeezed in a few words on the issue.
Coun. Dennis Egan said if he was a south-end councillor he'd be a little nervous, based on the criteria outlined for the review.
"You stand to lose a voice," said Egan.
He said if the report is based on the redistribution of growth in the town, most of which has been in Alliston, the south end would end up suffering in its representation on council.
Mayor Mike MacEachern said it's not fair to say the south is going to lose representation because the town doesn't know the outcome of the study.
Aside from population trends, the review will also look at balancing out representation ratios between wards where possible. There however won't be options to break up traditional neighbourhoods and communities in the town.
Ward 4 Coun. Richard Norcross is in favour of reviewing the wards.
He doesn't agree with spending $25,000 on a consultant when the town clerk does 90 per cent of the work though.
Clerk Gayla McDonald said an outside consultant is a benefit if proposed ward changes end up at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing. She said in the town's research, cases before the OMB have all been in favour of the appellant when an in-house review was done.
McDonald said even having town staff do preliminary study into the wards could affect how objective the consultant's report is.
New Tecumseth's ward system has been in place since amalgamation in 1991. Town council has nine members, with all wards voting for mayor and deputy mayor and seven councillors elected for the five wards. Ward 1 (Alliston) and Ward 5 (Tottenham) each have two councillors. The other three wards are represented by one councillor.
If the review goes ahead, it is hoped a consultant would be hired in December and would start on a work plan and research. The first round of public meetings would be in February.
A final report with options for council would be ready in May.
