Members of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission of Ontario during a meeting in Kenora. Oct. 2022. Image: Tim Davidson
No support for changes to federal electoral boundaries in northwestern Ontario.
Two public hearings were held this week in Kenora and Sioux Lookout, and no one spoke in favour of having one less riding in the region.
Fort Frances councillor Doug Judson says the way the boundaries are drafted, right now doesn’t benefit the smaller communities.
“The raw reality is that by carving out new ridings in a way that gives primacy to that population quotient, the rural northwest will have less effective representation than before,” Judson told the commissioners at a public hearing in Kenora Tuesday night.
“This will occur because, in practical terms, our only two MPs serving the northwest will always come from Thunder Bay.”
The electoral boundary proposal for northwestern Ontario calls for the southern part of the Kenora Riding to be combined with Thunder Bay-Rainy River.
The other riding would be called Kiiewetinoong-Mushkegowuk and stretch all the way from the Manitoba border to the Quebec boundary.
Retired Kenora lawyer Peter Kirby says in this riding, you will need an airplane to fly into most of the communities.
“It can’t be more effective because it doesn’t matter whether those 40 communities have a population of 100 or 1,000, they are accessible by air. So you haven’t made an MP’s job any easier by reducing the population (of the new riding),” says Kirby.
Lynne Leitch is one of the commissioners set to make a report on the boundary changes and says they will take all the feedback they’ve received in making their final report.
“We will definitely be taking to heart everything that we have heard. We are hearing from a lot of people in Ontario. We’re getting some very good suggestions and comments, and we’re going to consider all of them,” says Leitch.
Leitch says they will make a final report on the electoral boundaries by mid-December.
