Residents of new Kent County municipality challenge proposed election map
People in rural Champdoré say they shouldn’t be attached to urban Moncton riding
Residents from a newly created rural municipality in Kent County say they don't want to end up in the same provincial election riding with a portion of northeast Moncton.
They told an independent commission redrawing New Brunswick's 49-riding election map that they don't have much in common with the fast-growing city and have more links to other Kent County municipalities.
"I think we have legitimate concerns that we have a rural area, and how will we be represented in this new riding?" said Rachelle Richard-Collette, a resident of the new municipality of Champdoré.
Catherine Léger, another resident of the new municipality that came into being Jan. 1 through local government reform, also asked the commission to reconsider.
"If we don't band together in a map style to keep all of these interests within our boundaries … we're going lose some of it. It's not going to enrich our area," she said.
The two women were reacting to a proposed new map that the independent commission released in December.
Under provincial law, the 49 constituencies have to be redrawn every decade to account for how the number of voters in each riding have changed.
Each of the new ridings must be within 15 per cent of the provincial average of 11,667 voters per constituency.
The commission must release a final version 90 days after the date of the draft version in December, which means early March.
Former MLA knows region 'like the back of his hand'
This week's public feedback sessions are designed to gather alternate proposals.
Richard-Collette asked commission co-chair Camille Thériault, a former Liberal premier, to explain the logic of attaching rural Champdoré to urban Moncton.
Commission co-chair Camille Thériault remained silent during the entire 30-minute public feedback session. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
As a former Kent South MLA, Thériault "obviously knows the region like the back of his hand," she said.
But Thériault remained silent during the entire 30-minute meeting.
Instead, the other co-chair, former Progressive Conservative MP Roger Clinch, said it was not their job to explain the logic of the initial map.
"As far as giving the rationale for how we ended up here or how we ended up there, that's definitely not our purpose. But we are certainly open to any suggestions you might have as to how we can make it better," he said.
Richard-Collette complained that citizens don't have access to the maps and data that the commission had.
She also said that the timeline – during Christmas holidays and when new councils of newly created municipalities were taking office – made it difficult for communities to draft proposals.
"It's not that we're opposed to Moncton. Of course not. We're in and out of Moncton all the time. But the community interest, with the language, the schools, the rural issues, agriculture, that is a serious, serious consideration in the regrouping," she said.
"Our affinity is with Bouctouche and Cocagne in the southern part of the county, so I think that needs to be respected."
The meetings will continue until Saturday.
After that, the commission will finalize the new map, which will come into effect in the next provincial election in 2024.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/northern-leaders-election-map-communities-1.6710593
Northern leaders complain new election map splits their communities
Second round of consultations on provincial ridings will lead to new map for 2024 election
The independent commission that proposed a new map in December launched a series of virtual public meetings designed to gather feedback on their initial effort.
The meetings will continue until Saturday, and after that the commission will finalize a new map of the 49 ridings that will be used in the next provincial election in 2024.
During the first session, several local leaders in the Restigouche area complained that the commission hadn't listened to their suggestions on how to divide up the area.
Two areas of the new Restigouche Rural District, created Jan. 1 through the province's local government reform, are in two different proposed ridings.
Kedgwick Mayor Éric Gagnon said he hoped his community would be in the same riding as Campbellton. (Serge Bouchard/Radio-Canada)
"Why would you split rural Restigouche and take half of rural Restigouche and put them in another riding to vote, after just putting us together?" asked Brad Mann, chair of the Restigouche Regional Service Commission.
Kedgwick Mayor Éric Gagnon said he hoped his community would be in the same riding as Campbellton.
"They're our neighbours," he said. "If people are going to make the effort to submit something, maybe it should be followed once in a while."
Numbers did not add up, commission said
The mayors argued the commission was dividing "communities of interest" — the term in the law that refers to places near each other that share common concerns and collectively benefit from having a single MLA to represent them.
Commission co-chair Roger Clinch answered that some of the Restigouche proposals would not have complied with the legal requirement that all ridings must be within 15 per cent of the average number of voters, which is 11,667.
"The numbers in some cases did not add up," Clinch said.
"If some of the things ended up the way they ended up, it's likely because of that."
When Restigouche West Liberal MLA Gilles LePage spoke in support of the complaints, commission member Roger Ouellette, a political scientist, reminded him that "as a commission we operate within the framework of the act.
"It's you, the MLAs, some MLAs who are here, who passed that act."
Tracadie
Mayor Denis Losier said when the larger regional municipality was
created nine years ago, 'it was essential to build a community of
interest and create a feeling of belonging.' (Yves Lévesques/RADIO-CANADA)
Under provincial law, the 49 election constituencies have to be redrawn every decade to account for how the number of voters in each riding have changed.
The independent commission released its proposed map in December and must release a final version 90 days later, which means early March.
'If it's not broken, don't fix it'
The complaints from Restigouche were echoed Wednesday by presenters in Tracadie and Neguac.
"I'm a big believer in 'if it's not broken, don't fix it,'" said Neguac resident Rachel Allain.
Under the proposed new map, the village of Neguac, now in the riding of Miramichi Bay-Neguac, will be added to the Tracadie riding.
But at the same time, some parts of the Tracadie regional municipality, created in 2014, would be cut off and put in the Bathurst-Péninsule Centre riding.
And francophone communities surrounding Neguac would remain in the Miramichi Bay constituency.
Tracadie Liberal MLA Keith Chiasson told the meeting that would isolate them twice: in a different riding from the village where they go to shop and access services, and as a smaller francophone minority in the more overwhelmingly anglophone Miramichi Bay riding.
Tracadie Mayor Denis Losier said when the larger regional municipality was created nine years ago, "it was essential to build a community of interest and create a feeling of belonging.
"But it's difficult to create a sense of belonging … when we're seeing a fragmentation of services with our government partners."
Mayor Ernest Robichaud of Alnwick, a newly created municipality which includes Tabusintac, said the newly-created municipality will be cut up between the Tracadie and Miramichi Bay ridings.
"As a new municipality we have a lot to learn. Having to work with two different MLAs will make it that much harder — pretty must impossible."
Another feedback session was scheduled for Wednesday evening, and more meetings are planned for Thursday, Friday and Saturday around the province.
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