Back to the politicians for boundary changes

B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission is sticking to its guns when it comes to boundary redistribution, suggesting that Northern British Columbia still needs to reduce its electoral ridings by one in order for fair redistribution across the province.

It's a recommendation that the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell has been doing its best to ignore over the last few months, and one which has now been bounced back to the politicians for consideration.

While the North Coast riding is safe from change, there is some thought that one of the Prince George ridings may be eliminated in the spirit of redistribution an idea that as one could imagine isn't being particularly well received by the folks (especially the elected ones) in the Northern interior.

The Daily news detailed the latest moves in Friday's paper.

New map of electoral ridings on table
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, February 15, 2008
Pages one and three

Despite public protests, the B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission is still proposing to eliminate one riding in Northern B.C.

Now the decision moves on to the hands of the province's politicians.

The commission submitted its final report to the B.C. Legislative Assembly yesterday, recommending the overall number of ridings in the province increase from 79 to 83, with rural B.C. losing two ridings and the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and Okaganan gaining six.
Harry Neufeld, B.C.'s chief electoral officer, explained that there are currently eight ridings in Northern B.C. and the commission is proposing the legislature reduce that number to seven. This is despite protests held in Prince George and elsewhere recently.

"In the North region, we obviously revisited every single region we proposed and every electoral riding within those regions," said Justice Bruce Cohen, chair of the B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission.

While they looked at opportunities to rebalance the population, at the end of the day they were bound by their mandate and legal framework from the province.

"We certainly heard what was said to us by submitters from that part of the province," said Cohen.

The other region of the province set to lose a riding is Cariboo Thompson.

The commission is proposing to increase the size of the three ridings in the Northwest. The North Coast riding will be given a special exemption which will allow it to continue to exist despite its smaller population because of its large geographic area.

However, in the North, the District Municipality of Stewart and the Nisga'a Nation communities in the Nass Valley will become part of the proposed new electoral district of Skeena-Stikine; and, the southern boundaries on the North Coast will be extended further south to incorporate all of the Central Coast Regional District.

The new proposed electoral district of the Skeena-Stikine will be expanded northward to include Alice Arm and Kitsault, and the Bulkley Valley Stikine will be expanded eastward. The lost district will occur in the Prince George region.

The report by the boundaries commission will now be sent to the legislature, which will have the options of accepting the report, accepting and amending the report or doing nothing at all.

When the public outcry arose, the Liberals had proposed legislation to amend the mandate of the commission, however that legislation was scraped at the end of the fall sitting. The NDP and Liberals each leveled the finger at each other for failing to pass legislation that would have made it possible to retain the eight northern ridings.

And Liberal house leader Mike de Jong said if the commission's final report comes back without all the rural seats, it will not pass.

Despite the threat of having all their work ignored by the Liberals, Cohen said the commission was not allowed to react to any political maneuvering in the legislative assembly.

"We are an independent commission. We are a creature of statute. We were given a mandate and the commissioners had tasks to undertake in accordance with that mandate and at no time were we told not to complete that mandate," said Cohen.