The clock is ticking for area residents to voice their concerns over a proposed change to federal riding boundaries, which would see Rainy River District removed from the Kenora riding and added instead to Thunder Bay.
“Nobody saw this coming,” said local MP Robert Nault, who has held the Kenora-Rainy River seat since 1988. “It’s a huge exception to the rule.”
The rule generally allows for a 25 percent variance, plus or minus, from the set provincial riding size. The proposed riding of Kenora, for instance, will be roughly 43.7 percent below the provincial quotient.
The Kenora-Rainy River riding currently sits 26.8 percent below.
Nault believed, as many did, that the first draft for boundary re-adjustment—which proposed adding the Atikokan area to the Kenora-Rainy River riding from the Thunder Bay-Atikokan one—would be chosen.
“We were preparing ourselves politically to go into Atikokan,” said Nault. “It’s a perfect example of why you shouldn’t assume anything.
“Low and behold, the report comes out with a totally new perception of Northwestern Ontario,” he added.
On March 26, the Federal Boundary Commission tabled its report on federal riding boundaries across the country. As dictated in the Constitution Act of 1867 and the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act (1985), ridings across Canada are readjusted every 10 years to reflect changes and movements in population.
“It wasn’t done without thought,” said Justice Douglas Lissaman, chair of the Ontario provincial boundaries commission. “These things are not done in a vacuum.”
He noted the public stage of the process was conducted over the past year, including such places as Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, and Sudbury. “We had 16 hearings in six weeks,” Lissaman said.
“We found generally that a lot of people didn’t turn out. I found it everywhere,” he added, though saying the Thunder Bay and Sudbury hearings were better attended than most.
“We were trying to accommodate all the factors in the north,” Lissaman said. “What we had were people expressing their views in accordance with their community of interest.”
He explained the community of interest—the common regional ground that links communities—is weighed along with population to determine riding boundaries.
Nault suggested the commission did run into serious boundary concerns in the Sudbury area from the French community and population concerns north of Lake Superior.
“Community differences were a big issue in Northeastern Ontario,” said Nault.
“They chose to correct all that and change one riding and make one exception,” he noted, explaining that by making riding changes in Northeastern Ontario, ridings as they moved west changed until running into Kenora.
“It was an easy answer.”
“We have certain guidelines and quite frankly, I think we’ve broken many of them in favour of the north,” said Lissaman.
“The debate is more about community of interest,” said Nault.
“I always believed the Rainy River District has more in common with Kenora,” he noted, adding the areas share Lake of the Woods, a watershed, a port of entry, and commercial industries.
“The whole issue should be based on what’s best for the region.”
“We did listen to community of interest,” countered Lissaman, adding that insinuations the commission didn’t understand northern issues—specifically from local MPP Howard Hampton—were unfounded.
“We thought it was the right way. I’m sorry some people are upset. We made our best call.
“I think we were a very open commission,” he concluded. “This is our first attempt. If it’s not right, tell us.”
Justice Lissaman said the public has 30 days from the day the report was tabled—meaning April 25—to submit written opposition to any of the boundary changes to their current MP or MPP.
Those submissions, with support from 10 MPs, then will be submitted to a parliamentary standing committee, which will have 30 sitting days (days Parliament is in session) to come up with recommended changes for the boundary commission to consider.
“Emphasis to your readers nothing is done in a vacuum,” Lissaman reiterated. “Tell your readers we encourage people to follow the process.
“I encourage people to send in their objections. I think that is a very healthy the process allows for objections.
“If parliament comes back and says take another look, we will.
“It’s the commission’s final decision [though], not Parliament’s,” Lissaman added. “We will listen to the submissions, but no guarantee we’ll fix it.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to blindly follow [Parliament’s recommendations],” he said, adding the commission is an independent entity.
“If we fix one problem, we cause another somewhere else.”
Meanwhile, with the deadline for objections nearing, local municipalities are beginning to act.
Last Thursday, the Township of Alberton sent a letter and blank petition asking municipalities from around Rainy River District to “consider making a petition opposing the amalgamation of the federal Kenora-Rainy River District riding with the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding available to your respective municipal offices for signature by your residents.”
The issue was brought before Alberton council by Coun. Bill Morrison to be passes as a resolution to oppose the boundary re-configuration.
“Mostly because I wanted somebody more in our area than from the Thunder Bay area,” Coun. Morrison said of why he asked council to pass the resolution.
“In the Rainy River District, if we have somebody from Thunder Bay, they won’t know our concerns,” he argued. “A lot of people in Thunder Bay don’t know where Fort Frances is.
“Right now, Bob Nault understands our area.”
“I’ve been the Kenora-Rainy River MP for 15 years,” said Nault. “It’s been home for me. I’m not sure I want to leave this neck of the woods.
“I’m waiting to see what the Rainy River District wants to do,” he said of submitting opposition to the proposal. “I will represent the views of the Rainy River District.
“If municipalities all send me a letter [to oppose it], then that is good enough for me.”
Alberton isn’t the only municipality to make this move.
Fort Frances council passed a resolution Monday night to support the Alberton petition and to pass on its own letter to district municipalities to take up the cause.
“We passed our own resolution to keep the boundaries the same,” said Mayor Glenn Witherspoon, adding people should take every opportunity to let their MP or MPP know their opposition, or sign a petition to stop the boundary change.
He echoed Nault’s impression that Kenora and Rainy River District share communities of interest, including lifestyle, industries, and have similar-sized communities.
At issue for all municipalities, and residents for that matter, in the district is the potential to lose their political voices.
“We have a fairly strong voice now,” said Mayor Witherspoon. “We definitely get the ear of the minister [Nault].
“Would it be diminished [if MP were from Thunder Bay], I don’t know,” he added. “Only time will tell.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
