Commission opts to change federal riding

The verdict is in.
Fort Frances and the rest of Rainy River District will be cut loose from Kenora and merged with the current Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding—likely before the next federal election.
The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario yesterday went against a parliamentary sub-committee’s recommendations to keep Kenora-Rainy River as is and instead went ahead with the creation of the new riding of Thunder Bay-Rainy River.
“Splitting up the Kenora-Rainy River riding is a bad decision,” said Ontario NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton. “However, as it stands, it would not affect the next provincial election.”
The commission still opted to redraw the riding boundaries despite fierce opposition to its initial report from area municipal leaders and local MP Robert Nault in June to the parliamentary sub-committee,
“The commission rejects Mr. Nault’s objection and maintains its decision with respect to the boundary between the electoral districts of Kenora and Thunder Bay-Rainy River,” read a disposition released yesterday.
The document goes on to describe the so-called late objections from Nault, after the report had been released, as ill-timed.
And it also makes comments like “if we’d only known [Nault felt this way], we might well have been more aggressive” or “might have taken less seriously” certain aspects of the original report—squarely laying the blame on Nault for the confusion.
Nault was at a caucus retreat in North Bay and could not be reached for comment by press time today.
The commission reported in the disposition that the “late” objections by Nault, and other northern MPs calling for reconsideration of the proposed riding changes, did not give the commission the ability to gauge public support for the change, therefore they cannot consider re-drawing the map at this time.
However, the commission drastically changed its proposed riding boundaries between its first draft and the report—largely due to arguments made during public consultations across the province last year.
The disposition insinuates MPs should have made their case then.
Nault had contended he, along with other municipal leaders, had no problems with respect to the original draft proposal from the commission and thus found it unnecessary to attend the public meetings.
It wasn’t until the report was presented after the public meetings that differed so much from the original draft that Nault—in this district’s case—had any objections.
The parliamentary sub-committee that heard Nault’s complaints in June found the commission should reconsider the proposed changes to this riding, among others, and indicated it felt there was a “flaw” in the process when an MP’s silence is interpreted as apathy rather than support.
“It doesn’t seem to make sense,” a somewhat surprised Kenora Mayor Dave Canfield said. “I thought they were leaning toward Nault’s recommendation.
“I think our relationship [between Kenora and Rainy River District] will stay tight, but I think it will lose proper representation for Fort Frances and the Rainy River District,” he added.
In the end, the commission opted to create the Kenora riding under “extraordinary circumstances” as an exception to the minimum 26 percent below the tolerable provincial population quotient, invoking a provision not used before in Ontario, leaving the new Kenora riding 43.7 percent below the quotient.
The disposition stated that making this one exception would be better than making three, if Nault’s recommendation of adding Atikokan to the current Kenora-Rainy River riding had been accepted instead.
“The report explains that taking such a step [as creating the Kenora riding as the sole exception] enabled the commission to solve a great many apparent problems elsewhere in Northern Ontario, problems that were vividly highlighted at the public hearings,” it added.
This review process was part of an electoral riding review that happens every 10 years as prescribed in the Election Boundary Redistribution Act.
The current disposition will be integrated with the original report and a Proclamation of the Draft Representation Order will be transmitted to the House of Commons by the end of the month.
After that, the order cannot be in force until after the first dissolution of parliament one year after the proclamation—meaning sometime after September 1, 2004—unless parliament makes special provision for it to be implemented sooner.