Drawing the line; at redrawing the lines.

The feedback provided to the B. C. Electoral Commission’s meeting last week at the Crest was pretty succinct; the prospect of changing the riding dynamic on the north coast would not be greeted with many if any cheers.

The Daily News reported in its Friday edition that about 20 citizens, including a group from Kitimat attended the public session to listen and in some cases provide their suggestions as to what the Electoral Commission might wish to do as far as riding re-distribution goes.

The decline in population, which is the genesis of the debate, was presented as a temporary thing and many in the audience suggested that they had a bit more faith in the re-population of the riding than the number crunchers might have. And while it may seem like a bit of hometown cheerleading, they probably are not too far off on their belief that the population will rebound again in the next ten years or so. This would make any riding redistribution a costly and pointless affair, considering they would only have to do it all over again down the line. More importantly for the North Coast, the return to the present option would not be able to take place until after 2013.

The process that is underway and the changes considered were painted more of being a political issue. One which wasn’t taking into account the rather unusual aspects of the riding already in place, including the vast space it already consumes and the amount of travel a local MLA needs to conduct to meet the constituents at present. The issue served to put current MLA Gary Coons and former MLA Bill Belsey, on the same side for one of the few times in recent north coast history. That in itself might be cause for the commission to reconsider any plans to merge or redraw the local northwest ridings.

Full coverage of the session was recounted in the Daily News on Friday.


SPEAKERS UNITED IN OPPOISTION TO CHANGES IN RIDING
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, October 20, 2006
Pages One and Five

The dismal projection of a shrinking population in the provincial North Coast riding presented by the B. C. Electoral Boundaries Commission did not sit well with the public.

On Tuesday, night about 20 people gathered at the Crest to talk about proposed changes to the riding boundaries with Commissioner Stewart Ladyman.

However, they were shocked when Ladyman presented statistics provided by B. C. Stats that claim the North Coast riding will see the largest population decline of all 79 ridings in B. C. between 2005 and 2013 – down from 28,313 in 2005 to 26,041 in 2013.

“I think we are more optimistic than your projections are,” said Dave McGuigan in response to the commissioner’s presentation.

The commission is gathering public input in order to prepare a draft report on electoral ridings in the province. Each electoral boundary is supposed to have about the same number of voters, plus or minus 25 per cent, except in cases where the commission can prove there are special circumstances.

The last electoral boundaries commission gave the North Coast, Skeena and Bulkley Valley ridings special exemptions to have fewer people than normally allowed.

However, the North Coast riding’s population has decreased even further since the last commission in 1997 and based on the projection presented, will drop to 26,000 0 or half the population of the average riding (54,000 people) by 2013.

“I guess I am going to encourage you tonight to give me every reason to consider very special circumstances in the North,” said Ladyman.

While no one disagreed the region has been hard hit in the past years by a downturn in the fishing and forest industries, at least three people requested the commission requested the commission find out how B. C. Stats arrived at its population projections. And there were many concerns that if this commission was to expand the riding geographically to include more people, and if the growth many people anticipate was then to happen, the riding couldn’t be readjusted until the next electoral boundaries commission in 2013.

As it is, the commission heard, MLA’s have a heck of a time covering all the various communities currently in the North Coast riding. While the riding covers 65.970 square kilometers, it has only 300 kilometres of paved roads.

In fact, the North Coast MLA must drive for five hours through other ridings to get to Stewart at the tar tip of the North Coast riding.

”The mandate you have been given to look at this based solely on population is absolutely wrong, “said Bill Belsey, former MLA.

North Coast MLA Gary Coons was also critical.

“This isn’t about politics. There’s the optimism of the North… there’s so much potential and we are in a growth pattern,” he said.

Both the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District and city of Prince Rupert made presentations against increasing the size of the riding. And Sandra Helin, who has roots in Port Simpson, argued the North Coast is special because it has a significantly large Fist Nations population, upwards of 40 per cent. Stretching out the riding would water down that voice even further, she said.

There are 10 different First Nations communities currently within the riding.

“If a servant of the people does not know the people he is representing, how can he be effective?” she asked.

In addition, representatives from Kitimat drove for close to three hours in order to present their opposition to having the Skeena riding expanded.

Consultations will continue until the end of November and the commission expects to have a preliminary report presented by Aug. 15, 2007.

It will then hold official public hearings and make amendments before presenting a final report by Feb. 15, 2008.