With the Committee’s permission, I would like to take this opportunity to update you on the readjustment of the federal electoral boundaries scheduled to begin on March 12, 2002.

On May 23, 2001, I wrote to all members of the House of Commons and senators to inform them of the upcoming redistribution. I also spoke about this in my recent appearance before this Committee.

Representation in the House of Commons is readjusted after each decennial census to reflect changes and movements in Canada’s population in accordance with the Constitution Act, 1867, and the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act (1985, as amended).

The readjustment of the federal electoral district boundaries begins when the Chief Statistician prepares and sends the certified census return to the Minister designated for the purposes of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. I also get the document.

The Chief Statistician has confirmed that the census return will be available on March 12, 2002, as planned.

Readjustment of federal electoral boundaries is carried out by ten independent commissions, one for each province. I expect the ten federal electoral boundaries commissions to be established by March 12, 2002.

When the last redistribution was conducted, there were eleven commissions. There was one for the two electoral districts in the Northwest Territories before the creation of Nunavut.

Now that the Northwest Territories and Nunavut constitute one electoral district each, electoral boundaries commissions are not required for them. The same continues to apply obviously to the Yukon Territory, which is one riding federally.

Under the provisions of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, Elections Canada provides a variety of professional, technical and administrative services to the commissions.

All amounts required for the payment of salaries and other expenses under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act are determined by the Chief Electoral Officer and paid out of the consolidated revenue fund under my statutory authority.

In preparation for the upcoming redistribution, my Office is putting in place the infrastructure to ensure that Statistics Canada and Natural Resources Canada will assist Elections Canada during redistribution, namely by certifying the population data and verifying the boundary descriptions as required under the legislation.

The forecast budget for the upcoming redistribution is expected to be approximately ten million dollars. This covers all expenditures incurred by the commissions as well as those incurred by Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Elections Canada.

I am also sharing information with Elections Ontario, as this will be the first readjustment of federal electoral boundaries since the electoral boundaries in the province of Ontario were aligned with federal electoral district boundaries.

The chief justices of all the provinces were contacted last March and again last month and have been asked to identify a judge to sit as chair of the commission for their respective province to meet the March 12, 2002 target date. I also took the opportunity on both occasions to provide them with information on the redistribution process and the projected schedule for the work of the chair of the commission.

As well, the Speaker of the House of Commons has been contacted for the purposes of appointing the two other members of each commission. I have been informed that he has received my two letters.

Preparations have begun to bring commission members and the commission secretaries to a three-day conference here in Ottawa following their appointment. Guest speakers and academics will also be invited to address the concept of community of interest.

We will also provide advice to the commissions concerning the names of electoral districts that meet the requirements set by the Geographic Names Board of Canada in order to avoid future requests for name changes that could become very expensive to implement and sometimes confusing to the public.

For the first time, a Web module entitled Federal Representation 2004, accessible through the Elections Canada Web site (www.elections.ca), is being developed and will be available on March 12, 2002, for those who would like information on the process and to communicate with each of the ten commissions electronically.

For each province, we will publish on the Web module detailed maps showing the electoral district boundaries. In order to clearly illustrate the modifications at each step of the redistribution process, the user will have the choice to superimpose any two of the following: the current boundaries, the proposed boundaries, the boundaries from the commission’s report and the new boundaries adopted.

The development of a redistricting tool, which will use census and geography data to electronically and interactively produce boundary scenarios, will begin shortly. That of course will be used by the commissions in their work.

A communications plan is being prepared to identify strategies to inform the public on the process and encourage the participation of all segments of our society, including Aboriginal and ethnocultural communities.

In addition, there could be as many as five provincial redistributions taking place during the life of the readjustment of the federal electoral boundaries. As a result, our key messages will have to be appropriately directed to avoid public confusion.

I would like to bring to your attention a few key dates from the projected schedule for redistribution:

• First, the Chief Electoral Officer will calculate the number of seats allocated to each province.



• Secondly, each commission will consider a number of scenarios to divide the province into the number of seats allocated to that province and then publish its proposal.



• Then, the commissions will hold public hearings between July and October 2002.



• The commissions will then draft their report which will be tabled in the House of Commons between July 2002 and March 2003.



• At this point, members of the House of Commons will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed ridings through the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. This is expected to take place between September 2002 and April 2003.



• The commissions will then consider the objections raised by the members of the House of Commons and will subsequently issue their final report all between October 2002 and June 2003.



• The time frames reflect the fact that the commissions’ reports are tabled in a staggered fashion, based on the workload of each province.



• Finally, a representation order would be proclaimed by June 30, 2003, barring delays, and come into force with the first dissolution of Parliament to occur at least one year after the proclamation. Therefore, any federal general election called after June 30, 2004, would be conducted using the boundaries specified under the new representation order.

I am pleased to provide you with a copy of the projected schedule today.

We would be happy to answer any question you might have on the federal redistribution at this time.