The Revised Electoral Districts

There was near unanimous agreement, at virtually all the hearings, that the Commission’s preliminary proposal for realigning the northern electoral districts was inappropriate. That plan had envisaged an electoral district linking the Skeena and Chilcotin areas of the province in an electoral district that one wit labelled "California North". Recognizing that the existing Skeena electoral district was going to be enlarged, all recommended its expansion eastwards rather than to the south. The Commission recognizes the merit of these arguments and is recommending a Skeena–Bulkley Valley electoral district that stretches eastwards along Highway No. 16 to take in Smithers, Houston and Fraser Lake. This, however, forces substantial changes in adjacent electoral districts and leads to the establishment of an electoral district, whose axis is Highway No. 97, which connects Prince George with Williams Lake and the Cariboo country. The elimination of the Cariboo–Chilcotin electoral district (in our preliminary Proposals) had met with strong opposition and so this too seems a better fit with local representational interests. The other change in the north involved an adjustment within the City of Prince George to the boundary between the new Cariboo–Prince George and the old Prince George–Peace River electoral districts. The latter has also been expanded southwards along Highway No. 16 to incorporate McBride.

The next set of challenges involved the Kootenays and indeed almost the entire southeastern quadrant of the province. Population densities are low there (the two electoral districts in the area have the lowest populations of the 36 we recommend), and our initial Proposals sought to remedy population deficiencies by moving the Kaslo and Slocan valleys to the eastern of the two electoral districts but then adding the City of Penticton to the western one. Representation at the hearings convinced us that these proposals created significant difficulties of their own and that there were better alternatives. Given the transportation and communication difficulties of the region, the Kaslo and Slocan areas were restored to the Kootenay–Boundary–Similkameen electoral district but that then necessitated expanding the population base of the Kootenay–Columbia electoral district. We have done that by extending its northern portion westward along the Trans-Canada Highway as far as Sicamous. Restoring Penticton as the eastern anchor of a refashioned Okanagan–Coquihalla electoral district necessitated a major expansion of the Kootenay–Boundary–Similkameen electoral district. The Commission was presented with a well-supported plan to do this by creating an electoral district centred along the southern Highway No. 3. The result is an electoral district (Kootenay–Boundary–Similkameen) that reaches across the Boundary country and southern Similkameen to the western side of Manning Park.

The immediate consequence of these changes was a considerably revised Okanagan–Coquihalla electoral district. Three areas have been removed from the electoral district we initially proposed: the southern area to the new Kootenay–Boundary–Similkameen; areas around Kamloops to a redefined Kamloops–Thompson electoral district; and the western side up the Fraser Canyon to its own Chilliwack–Fraser Canyon electoral district. With the City of Penticton now back in the electoral district, the result is an electoral district that is considerably more compact than the one initially proposed but with about the same population base.

Of the other three interior electoral districts, only Kelowna remains unaltered from the preliminary plan. The proposed Cariboo–Kamloops electoral district was necessarily changed by the creation of a new Cariboo–Prince George electoral district, the modest southern expansion of Prince George–Peace River and the reshaping of Okanagan–Coquihalla. This allows a new Kamloops–Thompson electoral district to incorporate a number of suburban areas whose community of interest links them to the City of Kamloops. The changes to several of these interior electoral districts impinge on the proposed Shuswap electoral district, whose boundaries have been modified as a result, though with only a modest decrease in population. The Commission heard and read a number of presentations strongly urging a recognition that this electoral district was rooted in the Okanagan and we have responded by restoring the name North Okanagan–Shuswap.

None of these changes, no matter how much they successfully respond to community of interest considerations, alters the decline in the representation of the province’s interior and northern areas. In an effort to respond to widespread appeals (from rural areas) for protecting rural representation, the Commission reoriented the electoral district at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley so that it now stretches north up the Fraser Canyon to Lillooet and across to Pemberton.

This leaves the Lower Mainland. In its preliminary Proposals, the Commission sought to move towards population balance across the electoral districts but to do so had to create electoral districts that crossed the Burrard Inlet and then the Fraser River. This produced much angst as first the residents of Burnaby and North Vancouver, and then those of New Westminster and Surrey, argued passionately and with evidence of incongruence in the interests and make-ups of their respective cities, that the proposed electoral districts would not serve the interests of the respective electorates. All strongly argued that larger inter-district population discrepancies were a much-preferred option. At the same time, residents of the Fraser Valley in the Abbotsford and Langley areas made suggestions for revising electoral district boundaries in the valley in order to bring them into line with municipal borders. The Commission was persuaded of the merits of many of these interventions. The result is a major overhaul of the 20 electoral districts proposed for the Lower Mainland.

The fewest alterations to the preliminary plan in this region were in the electoral districts within the City of Vancouver, though the Commission did respond to appeals to recognize a community of interest in the city’s "downtown east side" and keep it wholly within Vancouver East. To avoid having an electoral district that crosses Burrard Inlet, we have created two Burnaby electoral districts: Burnaby North, entirely within the city, and Burnaby–New Westminster, which encompasses the western end of New Westminster. The other part of New Westminster is twinned with adjacent parts of Coquitlam and Port Moody to create New Westminster–Coquitlam. The remaining areas in the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody all constitute the new Tri-Cities electoral district. This leaves the area east of the Pitt River and north of the Fraser River in Dewdney–Alouette.

The decision not to have electoral districts bridging the Fraser River has also led to a number of new electoral districts on its southern side. At the western end of the region are Richmond and Delta–Richmond East, the latter combining Ladner, Tsawwassen and the rural areas of Delta with Steveston and the more rural parts of Richmond. Heavily urbanized North Delta is combined with the northwest corner of Surrey in Newton–North Delta while three other electoral districts have been established in the City of Surrey. To the west, in the Fraser Valley, are the electoral districts of Langley and Abbotsford.

The final two electoral districts in the region are on the north shore: North Vancouver and West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast. It is here that the price must be paid for allowing community of interest criteria to override, to some degree, the claims of exact population equality. Both these electoral districts have populations that exceed the electoral quota by more than 10 percent and, given the electoral quota for British Columbia, will inevitably be among the very largest in Canada.

The electoral map we propose has 36 electoral districts: 15 with populations below the electoral quota, 20 with populations above it, and one that falls within a few hundred of the provincial standard.

Given the enormous difficulties presented by the geography of British Columbia, the Commission is satisfied that it has achieved a fair balance between the competing demands of electoral district size, shape and character. That the final product is considerably altered from the preliminary Proposals reflects the careful and reasoned submissions that we had from so many British Columbians in the public hearing phase of our work. That is as it should be for that is precisely how the system was designed by Parliament to work.

The work of the Commission was greatly aided by the cheerful and efficient assistance of its secretary, Christine Wiebe. Her administrative ability, coupled with her wide knowledge of the province and electoral processes, was invaluable and much improved our work together. We are very grateful for all her help.

The legal descriptions of these 36 electoral districts, along with accompanying maps, are attached to this report.

Dated at Vancouver, British Columbia, this 21st day of February, 2003.

Honourable Justice Robert Hutchison
Chairman

R. Kenneth Carty
Member

Lynda Erickson
Member

CERTIFIED copy of the Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia.

Christine Wiebe
Commission Secretary

 Privacy Statement, Important Notices and Disclaimers