All parties in legislature agree to exempt Tantramar from riding size rule
Fast-tracked bill means 800 people in Cap-Acadie won’t be forced into majority anglophone constituency
The change will allow about 800 mostly francophone voters in the municipality of Cap-Acadie to avoid being forced into the overwhelmingly majority anglophone riding.
All MLAs in the legislature gave unanimous consent to allow the bill to go through all three readings.
The process, which normally requires several days, happened in less than five minutes and the bill will get royal assent and become law later this week.
"The great thing about our democracy is we have the opportunity to work together," said government house leader Glen Savoie.
"It's not always about being oppositional. There are times when we do have to work together, and this is one of them."
The
map in the final report by the independent commission shows the
Tantramar region with a section of Cap-Acadie included at the top. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé Liberal MLA Jacques LeBlanc, whose riding includes Cap-Acadie, applauded the Progressive Conservative government for agreeing to the quick action.
"I want to commend the government [for bringing] this bill forward, and to see all parties give unanimous consent, it's a great day for democracy in this province," he said.
Provincial law requires the election map to be redrawn every 10 years by an independent commission to take into account shifting population numbers.
Ridings must be roughly equal in the number of voters, though the commission is allowed to deviate from that by 15 per cent to reflect "communities of interest" and by up to 25 per cent in "extraordinary circumstances."
'No latitude,' commission said
In its final report on March 13, the current commission said it couldn't avoid putting part of Cap-Acadie in Tantramar because otherwise, Tantramar would be 29 per cent below the average.
The commission said it had "no latitude" to deviate from the law but recommended the legislature pass a special bill to create an exception for Tantramar.
Savoie's legislation does exactly that, allowing the number of voters in the constituency to deviate by more than 25 per cent for this redistribution only.
The commission, which has until April 26 to consider last-minute objections to its proposed map, can now redraw it to keep Cap-Acadie entirely in LeBlanc's riding.
"This bill gives them the flexibility to do what they couldn't do before," Savoie said.
Not a precedent, minister says
The commission said in a statement that assuming the bill becomes law in time, it will "take its impact into consideration as it prepares its final report."
The minister said he did not expect the bill to create a precedent that would open the door to elected politicians meddling with the independent map-drawing process more often in the future.
"It's not something that I think you will see repeated very often because of the importance of independent commissions," he said.
"But in this particular case, where the commission actually mentioned it specifically in the report, that gave the legislative assembly, I feel, the space it needed to act."
LeBlanc said when the commission's report came out March 13, he wasn't sure the government would move fast enough to make the change before the new map had to take effect.
"I had hope, but I knew time was short and there was a lot of work to be done. But the work that had to be done was done."
Reconsideration needed
Once the commission considers a handful of objections and makes any final alterations, the map becomes law.
Memramcook-Tantramar Green MLA Megan Mitton said she was happy to see the legislature resolve the issue but said the entire redistribution process needs a reconsideration.
"Overall, we need to take a look more broadly at how the work of the commission happens, how those decisions are made, look at the legislation more broadly."
Savoie said there's no plan to do that but it could happen before the next required redistribution approximately a decade from now.
Memramcook will be separated from Tantramar and moved into a riding with Dieppe on the new map, a response to concerns there that francophone residents are a minority in the existing riding.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meagan Mitton to win her Seat in the last Election ??
She only squeaked out 11 votes to win.
Wonder what she thinks now that Memramcook is now
part of Dieppe Riding.
Re: Deadline day for communities, MLAs to file final objections to election map
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Ministère des Transports et de l’Infrastructure
Député New Maryland - Sunbury
---------- Original message ----------
From: Amanda Wildeman <amanda.wildeman@greenpartynb.
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 02:53:34 -0700
Subject: Out of office / Hors du bureau Re: Deadline day for
communities, MLAs to file final objections to election map
To: david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Hello,
Thank you for your email. I am currently on leave from the Green Party of NB.
If this is a media request for Green MLAs David Coon, Megan Mitton or
Kevin Arseneau, please email Josh.O'Donnell@gnb.ca or call (506)
478-7781.
For all other requests, please contact our executive director, Claire
Kelly-Orozco at Claire.Kelly-Orozco@
Thank you,
Amanda Wildeman
--
Bonjour,
Merci pour votre courriel. Je suis actuellement en congé du Parti
vert du Nouveau-Brunswick.
S'il s'agit d'une demande médiatique pour les députés verts David
Coon, Megan Mitton ou Kevin Arseneau, veuillez envoyer un courriel à
Josh.O'Donnell@gnb.ca ou téléphoner au (506) 478-7781.
Pour toute autre demande, veuillez communiquer avec notre directrice
générale, Claire Kelly-Orozco, à Claire.Kelly-Orozco@
Merci,
Amanda Wildeman
David Amos<david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 6:53 AM |
| To: Mike.Dawson@gnb.ca, "michelle.conroy" <michelle.conroy@gnb.ca>, "benoit.bourque" <benoit.bourque@gnb.ca>, Josh.O'Donnell@gnb.ca, claire.kelly-orozco@greenpartynb.ca, rachel.restigouchechaleur@gmail.com, "David.Coon" <David.Coon@gnb.ca>, "Mitton, Megan (LEG)" <megan.mitton@gnb.ca>, "Arseneau, Kevin (LEG)" <kevin.a.arseneau@gnb.ca>, "blaine.higgs" <blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, "kris.austin" <kris.austin@gnb.ca>, "james.mockler" <james.mockler@gnb.ca>, "Holland, Mike (LEG)" <mike.holland@gnb.ca>, "richard.williams" <richard.williams@gnb.ca>, "Robert. Jones" <Robert.Jones@cbc.ca>, "Ross.Wetmore" <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, "robert.mckee" <robert.mckee@gnb.ca>, "Rene.Legacy" <Rene.Legacy@gnb.ca>, "robert.gauvin" <robert.gauvin@gnb.ca>, "Dominic.Cardy" <Dominic.Cardy@gnb.ca>, "andrea.anderson-mason" <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca>, "jeff.carr" <jeff.carr@gnb.ca>, Bruce.Fitch@gnb.ca, Kathy.Bockus@gnb.ca, "Bill.Oliver" <Bill.Oliver@gnb.ca>, "Bill.Hogan" <Bill.Hogan@gnb.ca>, "Margo.Sheppard" <Margo.Sheppard@fredericton.ca>, "Margaret.Johnson" <Margaret.Johnson@gnb.ca>, "mary.wilson" <mary.wilson@gnb.ca>, "jill.green" <jill.green@gnb.ca>, "Tammy.Scott-Wallace" <Tammy.Scott-Wallace@gnb.ca>, "Gary.Crossman" <Gary.Crossman@gnb.ca> | |
| Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, amanda.wildeman@greenpartynb.ca, "Paul.Harpelle" <Paul.Harpelle@gnb.ca>, "Jacques.Poitras" <Jacques.Poitras@cbc.ca>, andre <andre@jafaust.com> | |
Tuesday, 28 March 2023 It's deadline day for communities, MLAs to file final objections to election map | |
It's deadline day for communities, MLAs to file final objections to election map
49 new ridings take effect in 30 days, whether commission makes last-minute tweaks or not
The map, released two weeks ago by an independent electoral boundaries commission, will go into effect in 30 days with or without any last-minute changes based on the objections.
Progressive Conservative, Liberal and Green MLAs all signed objections over the last few days, though the commission wouldn't provide a list.
"The commission will not be providing the media with the names of the individuals, groups or organization who file an objection to the final report," said spokesperson Paul Harpelle.
Harpelle pointed out that the last commission, in 2013, didn't identify who filed objections. The law doesn't require or prohibit the release of information on who submitted objections or which riding maps they were objecting to.
He said eight objections were filed as of 5:30 p.m. Monday, though the commission would accept others until midnight.
MLAs not confident objections will be heard
Southwest Miramichi-Bay du Vin PC MLA Mike Dawson confirmed he and colleague Michelle Conroy endorsed an objection by residents of Escuminac, Baie Sainte-Anne and Hardwicke who don't want to be moved into the riding of Kent North.
PC Michelle Conroy joined Dawson in opposing a change that would move
several communities to Kent North. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Dawson said the members of the commission ignored that sentiment in its final report so he was not optimistic they would listen now.
"I'd like to think they're going to look at it and do what's best for the voters and taxpayers," he said.
"Do I think they will? … If 600 or 800 letters aren't enough, my letter from me and Michelle, I can't see it being enough either."
Provincial law requires that the 49 electoral ridings be redrawn every 10 years to ensure they have a roughly equal number of voters after shifts in population.
After two rounds of public consultations and an initial map proposal, the commission issued a final report March 13.
Once that report is published, objections can be submitted for two weeks, but only if they're co-signed by at least two elected members of the legislature.
Liberal
MLA Benoit Bourque isn't sure 800 letters will be enough to get a
revision in the electoral map for the new municipality ofChampdoré. (CBC)
Liberal MLA Benoit Bourque said he and Robert Gauvin have backed a request from the new municipality of Champdoré to be mostly in Kent County.
Like Dawson, he's not sure the commission will listen.
"It's tough for me to speculate on where they're going to go," he said.
Black River-Hardwicke wants to stay with Miramichi
Lynn Gregan, the former chair of the Black River-Hardwicke local service district, said people in his community near Miramichi feel more attachment to the city — where they tend to work, shop and do business — than to the northern part of Kent County.
"The objection, first of all, was dividing the community of Hardwicke in two," he said.
But he said many people from Escuminac and Baie Sainte-Anne are also opposed to being in Kent North, estimating 60 per cent of voters in the three communities signed a petition against it earlier this year.
Lynn
Gregan, the former chair of the Black River-Hardwicke local service
district, said many people were 'flabbergasted' by how the new electoral
map devided their community. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
"They're flabbergasted," said Gregan, who now chairs the new Greater Miramichi rural district created by local government reform.
Gregan lives in what will be the Miramichi East provincial riding, while his neighbours in the community will be in the Kent North riding.
The commission said in its final report that it put the area in Kent North because they are part of the new Kent rural district created by local government reform, and it makes sense for them to share the same MLA.
Dawson says that should not supersede local wishes.
"The people of the area would know better than the people on the commission, and if the people of the area say they don't want to be in a certain area because their interests don't align with Kent North, then why are they doing it?"
David Coon objects to splitting of his riding
Green Leader David Coon and party MLA Kevin Arseneau signed an objection to the splitting of Coon's current Fredericton South riding into two new city ridings.
Green Party Leader David Coon, who has represented Fredericton South
since 2014, would like the riding held together. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
And Memramcook-Tantramar Green MLA Megan Mitton joined Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé Liberal MLA Jacques LeBlanc to sign an objection to part of the new municipality of Cap-Acadie becoming part of a new Tantramar riding.
That objection is unlikely to go anywhere because the commission has already said that if the section of Cap-Acadie were removed, the Tantramar riding would be below the minimum number of voters allowed by provincial law.
Besides LeBlanc, five other Liberals have filed objections or are supporting objections from their ridings. Three of those are about riding boundaries and two are about riding names.
Among Progressive Conservative MLAs, at least two are objecting to riding changes affecting Oromocto and one, cabinet minister Daniel Allain, is objecting to changes to his Moncton East riding, according to a spokesperson. LeBlanc co-signed Allain's objection.
In the last electoral riding redrawing in 2013, the commission rejected 20 of the 23 final objections.
It accepted two in full, including one that changed boundaries and one that only changed a riding's name. And it partly accepted another recommendation dealing with a name change.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I guess the residents of Chiasson-Savoy weren't the only ones stuck with a reform that made no sense.
> https://davidraymondamos3.
>
>
> RE Higgs calls 3 byelections in former Liberal ridings for April 24
> Amanda Wildeman
> <amanda.wildeman@greenpartynb.
> To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
> Cc: rachel.restigouchechaleur@
> <claire.kelly-orozco@
> Hello Rachel and Claire,
>
> In case you are uncertain what to do with this email, he is one of few
> people that regularly spams the office(s), I do not recommend replying
> at all, but obviously that is your choice.
>
> Thanks,
> Amanda
>
> Out of office / Hors du bureau Re: RE Higgs calls 3 byelections in
> former Liberal ridings for April 24
>
> Amanda Wildeman
> <amanda.wildeman@greenpartynb.
> To: david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>
> Hello,
>
> Thank you for your email. I am currently on leave from the Green Party of
> NB.
>
> If this is a media request for Green MLAs David Coon, Megan Mitton or
> Kevin Arseneau, please email Josh.O'Donnell@gnb.ca or call (506)
> 478-7781.
>
> For all other requests, please contact our executive director, Claire
> Kelly-Orozco at Claire.Kelly-Orozco@
>
> Thank you,
> Amanda Wildeman
> --
> Bonjour,
>
> Merci pour votre courriel. Je suis actuellement en congé du Parti
> vert du Nouveau-Brunswick.
>
> S'il s'agit d'une demande médiatique pour les députés verts David
> Coon, Megan Mitton ou Kevin Arseneau, veuillez envoyer un courriel à
> Josh.O'Donnell@gnb.ca ou téléphoner au (506) 478-7781.
>
> Pour toute autre demande, veuillez communiquer avec notre directrice
> générale, Claire Kelly-Orozco, à Claire.Kelly-Orozco@
>
> Merci,
> Amanda Wildeman
>
Commission sticks with plan to split Green leader's riding on new election map
Final report heeds several other objections but dismisses pleas to keep Fredericton South intact
Despite objections from residents during a round of public consultations, Coon's Fredericton South riding will be split between two new constituencies on the election map in the commission's final report.
"The commission does not believe that the evidence received during the current round of consultations is sufficient to make any changes with respect to this request," the commission writes in the report tabled at the legislature Monday morning.
Coon has represented Fredericton South, a downtown urban riding on the south side of the St. John River, since 2014.
The new map makes Regent Street, the city's main north-south artery, the dividing line between two new ridings, Fredericton South-Silverwood and Fredericton-Lincoln.
Commission co-chair Roger Clinch said the commission was asked by the city of Fredericton early in the process to create more "totally urban ridings" in the capital.
"In order to do that, we established the ridings the way that they are" while respecting the law, he said.
Last year, the Green Party was excluded from choosing members of the commission after objecting to having to submit names to the premier's office, instead of the legislature, for vetting.
Objection planned
The commission is co-chaired by Clinch, a former Progressive Conservative MP, and Camille Thériault, a former Liberal premier.
"I don't think it's for us to judge the makeup of the committee," Clinch said when asked if the Fredericton map might have been different with Green appointees involved.
"We were appointed to the committee, and we did the best that we could to apply the guiding principles across the province."
Coon said Monday there's no way to say for sure if there was a deliberate attempt to make it harder for him to get re-elected.
But he said he'll be filing an objection to the report because Fredericton's south-side downtown is a community of interest that shouldn't be divided between two ridings.
He also said the law should be changed so that political parties don't get to submit names for the commission.
"It needs to be actually and truly independent," he said.
The splitting of Coon's riding is one of the few proposals the commission refused to reconsider.
It did listen to residents of Neguac who argued against its original proposal to move the village into the riding of Tracadie.
The commission made the move so that the overwhelmingly Acadian village would be part of a majority-francophone riding.
Neguac
will stay in the riding of Miramichi Bay-Neguac. It was going to be
moved into a riding that would have been called Tracadie-Neguac. (Village of Neguac)
But during the public hearings earlier this year, several Neguac residents including Mayor Georges Savoie said the village preferred to stay in the same riding as part of Miramichi.
Savoie said Monday he was glad the final proposal restores the riding as Miramichi Bay-Neguac.
"It's a good decision. It reflects the desire of the population to remain with the Miramichi, where we're getting our provincial services, and to have the MLA and the services from the same region," he said.
The commission also agreed to several other changes to its original map, including in Fredericton, Moncton and the southwest and northwest parts of the province.
Provincial law requires the election map to be redrawn every 10 years to take into account shifting population numbers.
Ridings must be roughly equal in the number of voters, though the commission is allowed to deviate from that by 15 per cent to reflect other factors, including local government boundaries, rural representation, linguistic representation and "communities of interest."
And in "extraordinary circumstances" the commission can deviate from the equal-representation number by up to 25 per cent.
Even with that latitude, the commission says in its report it couldn't avoid putting part of the new municipality of Cap-Acadie in the Tantramar riding.
The
commission is co-chaired by Roger Clinch, left, a former Progressive
Conservative MP, and Camille Thériault, a former Liberal premier. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Cap-Acadie Mayor Serge Léger questioned why the community, just created Jan. 1 under local government reform, would then be split between two provincial ridings.
Other residents said they wouldn't have effective representation in a majority anglophone riding.
But the commission says in its final report that the Tantramar riding would be too small — 29 per cent below the average number of voters — unless it included part of a neighbouring francophone community.
The report says the commission asked for a legal opinion and was told it had "no latitude to deviate from the absolute maximum deviation" of 25 per cent allowed by law.
The commission recommends the legislature pass legislation to create an exception to the 25-per-cent range for Tantramar before the next election.
Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé Liberal MLA Jacques LeBlanc, whose riding includes Cap-Acadie, said the report was "disappointing" but he understood the commission had to respect the law.
He said he would look for other MLAs to support a bill to make an exception for Tantramar.
"That's the only solution that I can find at this time to move forward."
Boundary changes
Other changes from the proposed map to the final version include:
- Removing part of the city of Moncton from the mostly rural riding of Champdoré. Rural residents argued their clout would be weakened if a section of the fast-growing city were in the riding.
- Shifting the village of Saint-Quentin into the same riding as Grand Falls.
- Keeping Campobello Island in the Saint-Croix riding as it is now, after initially recommending adding it to Fundy-The Isles-Saint John Lorneville, formerly named Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West.
- Moving part of the Marysville area of Fredericton into Fredericton-Grand Lake to avoid splitting that part of the city between three ridings.
- The community of New Denmark will be part of the Carleton-Victoria riding rather than in Grand Falls-St. Quentin, as the commission proposed at first.
Under the electoral boundaries law, any two MLAs can file a written objection to any of the final recommendations.
The commission then has another 30 days to consider those objections but isn't obligated to heed them.
After that, the provincial cabinet is required by law to adopt the new ridings without changes.
The next provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 21, 2024.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yea Right
David Coon calls proposed change to his Fredericton South riding 'nonsensical'
Changes would split Fredericton South, with major south side street becoming the dividing line
"It just is nonsensical, that's for sure," Coon said Monday. "And I can't imagine any of my constituents would think this is a good idea either."
Proposed changes in riding boundaries, announced earlier in the day, were made by an independent commission, which tweaked existing constituencies to stay within the population range required by law for New Brunswick ridings.
The map is preliminary and will be the subject of eight public consultations in January before a final version is released within 90 days.
A proposed provincial election map was released Monday by the Electoral
Boundaries and Representation Commission. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Coon's riding, which he's won in the last three elections, would be split into Fredericton Lincoln and Fredericton South-Silverwood, with Regent Street serving as the dividing line.
Coon not opposed to modifications
That's similar to what existed before the last redrawing of the map a decade ago.
Coon said the City of Fredericton made a good proposal to modify the ridings, so "Fredericton was well-represented by MLAs, like Moncton and Saint John are."
Coon isn't opposed to modifying boundaries in the Fredericton region, but he doesn't think splitting up Fredericton South is the answer.
He said the new proposal, if adopted, would mean some Fredericton South constituents would be grouped in with communities outside the capital city.
This means the MLA's focus would need to be split among communities, said Coon.
At present, the other ridings that take in parts of the Fredericton area include Fredericton North, Fredericton West-Hanwell, Fredericton-York, Fredericton-Grand Lake, New Maryland-Sunbury, and Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton
Coon was hoping that some things would be change this time around, he said, suggesting the addition of Forest Hill and the other side of Smythe Street to Fredericton South.
"But instead of making those tweaks, they went for recommending a wholesale change in Fredericton South, breaking it up into two separate ridings," he said.
Coon said he'll have to see what the map looks like once the final version is released, but as it stands now, he thinks the current proposal would result in two Green MLAs — one for Fredericton South-Silverwood and one for Fredericton-Lincoln.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
How many times have I told you; thats how you get hacked.
No regional seat shakeup in proposed N.B. electoral map
No region has lost enough people to warrant losing a seat, co-chair says
An independent commission has mainly tweaked existing constituencies to stay within a population range required by law.
Fast-growing cities Moncton and Fredericton have not gained seats, and northern areas where the population has declined or been stagnant have not lost any.
"Although there has been a diminution of people on the north shore, it's not that significant when it comes to electors," said co-chair Roger Clinch, a former Progressive Conservative MP. "It's not significant enough to eliminate a riding there."
The map is preliminary and will be the subject of eight public consultations in January before a final version is released within 90 days.
An update to the law on riding boundaries in 2015 gave the current commission more flexibility to stretch the voting population of constituencies.
Provincial
law requires that an independent commission be appointed every 10 years
to redraw the 49 electoral districts in the province to reflect
changing population numbers. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
The law requires the commission to calculate the average number of voters in each riding, known as the "electoral quotient." The figure the commission used is 11,667.
"We respected the quotient and that will give us, hopefully, better representation," said co-chair Camille Thériault, a former Liberal premier.
The legislation says each riding's number of voters must be "as close as reasonably possible" to the quotient, though the commission can deviate by up to 15 per cent to accommodate what are called "communities of interest" and other factors.
The proposed map includes some northern ridings that deviate substantially from the average. Caraquet would be 14.9 per cent below the quotient, and Miramichi Bay would be 13.2 per cent below.
Meanwhile, some ridings in and around cities in the south are well over the quotient. Riverview-Albert would be 10.6 per cent above, Shediac Bay-Dieppe would be 8.1 per cent above, and Fredericton South-Silverwood would be 5.4 per cent above.
"We didn't design it so we'd have five seats here and five seats there," Clinch said. He said when the commission did the math, "it came out that way, that there were no changes in particular regions."
Camille
Thériault and Roger Clinch (far right) with Shayne Davies, clerk of the
Legislative Assembly. A new electoral map will take effect for the
provincial election scheduled for Oct. 21, 2024. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Clinch and Thériault refused to be drawn into discussions of specific ridings Monday, saying they wanted New Brunswickers to digest the map first and have the chance to comment at public hearings next month.
One of the few notable changes on the map is the slicing up of the current Fredericton South riding, won in the last three elections by Green Party Leader David Coon.
The proposed new map splits the southern part of the city between two new ridings, Fredericton Lincoln and Fredericton South-Silverwood, with the major traffic artery Regent Street serving as the dividing line.
That's similar to what existed before the last redrawing of the map a decade ago.
New Liberal Leader Susan Holt, who lives in Fredericton South, said in August she would wait to see a new map before deciding where she would run in the next election.
Her home would now be in Fredericton South-Silverwood, while Coon's would be in Fredericton-Lincoln, if this preliminary map is adopted.
The commission was allowed by the law to deviate from the required range of voters by up to 25 per cent in "extraordinary circumstances," such as the need to ensure fair linguistic representation.
The commissioners opted to do that in one riding, separating the current Memramcook-Tantramar riding so that francophones in Memramcook could become part of a new majority francophone Dieppe-Memramcook riding.
That leaves Tantramar with a voting population 22.4 per cent lower that the average.
The last redrawing, which created Memramcook-Tantramar, prompted complaints from francophones in the new riding that they were losing their majority-francophone constituency.
At the time, the law allowed only a five-per-cent deviation from the average, so the new commission had more leeway this year to put the village in a mostly francophone riding.
'It's been a long run'
The Acadian Society of New Brunswick filed a charter challenge against a Memramcook and Tantramar riding, and ended up settling out of court. Part of the settlement allowed for the 25 per cent "extraordinary circumstances" range.
Alexandre Cédric Doucet, president of the Acadian society, said it's taken 10 years for the change to come into effect.
"It's been a long run," he said.
"When you're a minority like Acadian francophones, good news is not high on the priority," he said. "We are very happy."
Doucet said in a presentation to the commission that the society advocated for the new riding of Dieppe-Memramcook, the integration of Néguac into the new riding of Tracadie-Néguac and to transfer Baie-Sainte-Anne to Kent-Nord. The commission delivered all of the above.
He said his group will continue to advocate for these recommendations until they're set in stone.
"We'll make some representation in that area to make sure that the recommendation will be in the final report," he said.
Acadian
Society of New Brunswick president Alexandre Cédric Doucet says the
re-joining of Memramcook-Dieppe as a provincial riding has been 10 years
in the making. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Maxime Bourgeois, mayor of Memramcook, said his community has been lucky in the last 10 years to have MLAs that care about the francophone issues.
However, there was always a risk of a unilingual anglophone person being elected to represent his community. He said that risk is minimized now.
He said in the last 10 years his village has worked alongside other municipalities, such as in the ridings of Sackville and Dorchester, to present a common front on provincial issues.
"Needless to say that those meetings were always held in English," he said.
Provincial law requires that an independent commission be appointed every 10 years to redraw the 49 electoral districts in the province to reflect changing population numbers.
The commissioners do not have the power to change the number of ridings.
The new map will take effect for the provincial election scheduled for Oct. 21, 2024.
The old map remains in effect for any by-elections held before then. Three ridings are now vacant: Dieppe, Restigouche-Chaleur and Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore, where Holt plans to run in a by-election.
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Fredericton asks commission to create two new provincial ridings within city limits
Mayor Kate Rogers suggests creation of 'Downtown-Hill-Skyline' and 'Nashwaaksis-Devon'
In a letter to the recently formed Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission, Mayor Kate Rogers asks for two new ridings exclusively within city limits, and to do away with "hybrid" ridings, which encompass constituents living in Fredericton as well as in smaller surrounding communities.
"It is Council's view that the present riding configuration marginalizes the voice of a significant portion of Fredericton's population," says Rogers, noting that about half of the city's population is encompassed in five ridings that also include rural communities.
Those five include Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton, Fredericton-Grand Lake, New Maryland-Sunbury, Fredericton-York and Fredericton West-Hanwell.
"Placing a small number of Fredericton voters in five different rural ridings where they share little in common with those who live in the balance of each of those ridings is inconsistent with the spirit of the [Electoral Boundaries and Representation] Act.
"By way of example and with respect, it is difficult to imagine how those who live in townhouses and condominiums in an urban setting west of Brookside Drive in the [city of Fredericton] share common concerns and interests with rural dwellers in Napadogan."
The proposal would see the creation of two new ridings within the city of Fredericton for a total of four. (City of Fredericton)
The other half of the city's population falls within the ridings of Fredericton South and Fredericton North.
The proposal has Fredericton South remaining largely unchanged, with areas of the city to the west, south and east of it brought together to form the new "Downtown-Hill-Skyline" riding.
Meanwhile, the area encompassing Fredericton North would become the riding of "Nashwaaksis-Devon," while areas further away from the city's core become Fredericton North.
The proposal also calls for fusing the Fredericton-York and Fredericton-Grand Lake ridings into one "Stanley-Minto-Chipman" riding, and redrawing Fredericton West-Hanwell, New Maryland-Sunbury and Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton into two ridings of "Hanwell-New Maryland" and "Oromocto-Fredericton Junction."
Rogers
argues that half of Fredericton's voters aren't properly represented as
they reside within ridings that also encompass voters in surrounding
rural communities. (City of Fredericton)
CBC News asked for an interview with Rogers, and spokesperson Wayne Knorr said Deputy Mayor Greg Ericson would be made available for comment, but not until after he makes a presentation to the commission on Thursday.
The Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission was formed earlier this year and is being co-led by former Bathurst mayor and Progressive Conservative MP Roger Clinch, and former Liberal premier Camille Thériault.
They, along with four other commissioners, will redraw the boundaries of New Brunswick's 49 provincial electoral ridings, which is required by law to be done every 10 years to account for shifting population figures.
Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold, in a public video posted online, said she presented to the commission to ask that all five of the ridings covering the city be redrawn to fall exclusively within city limits. Only two currently do.
City could lose advocates in legislature: MLA
Rogers in her letter notes that in four of the five ridings highlighted, Fredericton residents make up a minority of the total constituents, which worsens the concerns of poor representation for city residents.
The riding of New Maryland-Sunbury has the lowest percentage of Fredericton constituents, at 8.28 per cent of the riding's electorate, according to Rogers's letter.
Jeff Carr, the MLA for that riding, disagrees with Rogers's assertion that his constituents who live in Fredericton are poorly represented.
New
Maryland-Sunbury MLA Jeff Carr says the proposal would potentially lead
to less representation of Fredericton residents' concerns in the
legislature. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
"I totally disagree with that completely," Carr said, in an interview.
"A member of the legislature has different responsibilities or different duties when it comes to constituents who live in a municipality or outside in an unincorporated area. To say they're misrepresented or underrepresented is just not a fact."
Carr said having several electoral ridings that encompass a portion of Fredericton is actually a good thing for the city, as it increases the number of MLAs who would advocate for provincial spending for their constituents.
"I would think that everybody should have a little piece of the city. You have more voices around the table as a region and you can advocate with a stronger voice provincially when you have more regional MLAs that touch your city limits."
Green Party Leader and Fredericton South MLA David Coon declined to weigh in on what he thinks of the proposal laid out by Rogers, but agreed that riding boundaries should capture constituents who have common interests.
"I think in general that the electoral boundaries as much as possible need to reflect a community of interest wherever in the province and not create artificial lines between communities dividing them," he said.
"And so that's, that's certainly the concern I've heard from people around New Brunswick... It's clear that boundaries currently in some places are in unnatural locations, dividing communities up rather than bringing them together."
Commission considering input from cities
Commission co-chair Roger Clinch said Fredericton's submission is just one of several that have been made by municipalities, including Saint John and Moncton.
"So all we're doing at this point is gathering all of those submissions and seeing how they would fit into an overall plan," Clinch said, adding it would be premature to weigh in on any of the submissions.
"The overriding factor here is that the quotient is 11,714 electors per riding, so when you affect one riding it could then have some impact on two or three others, so those are the things that we have to take into consideration before we could make a decision on that."
Rogers, in her letter, says the four proposed city ridings along with the three proposed neighbouring ridings, would have about 11,477 eligible voters each, which would meet the electoral quotient "almost exactly."
However, Clinch said it's not clear the same could be said of the other bordering ridings that will have to be altered to accommodate the changes.
"New Brunswick is a very rural province and not often or not always can you have an equal number of electors if you do it the way that is being proposed."
Clinch said the commission will consider the submissions from public stakeholders in the coming weeks, and present a draft of the redrawn ridings on Dec. 12.
Another round of public feedback will be held after that, and a final version of the new provincial riding map will be presented by next April, he said.
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