Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendations from electoral boundaries commissions are binding in the following six jurisdictions: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Manitoba and Canada.
This does not mean in these six jurisdictions the reports of the Electoral Boundaries Commission has always been accepted without objection. Two jurisdictions, New Brunswick and Canada, provide a formal mechanism to register objections with the commission. Although any objections must be considered by a commission, amendments to a commission’s proposal are not required.
In Quebec during the most recent redistribution exercise, the Legislature enacted legislation to suspend the review process because legislators were not happy with the commission report. Meanwhile, last year in Nova Scotia the Minister of Justice rejected a commission’s interim report because in the government’s estimation it did not comply with the Commissioner’s mandate. This raised questions as to whether the final report of a commission would actually be binding if it did not meet the mandate of the commission. Just to point out that these are exceptions to the rules as opposed to the rule.
Most jurisdictions prescribe in legislation the total number of electoral districts and acceptable variances either in absolute terms or in accordance with a formula. All 14 jurisdictions in Canada employ independent electoral boundaries commissions to periodically examine the redistribution and readjustment of the electoral district boundaries.
What this motion is doing is suggesting we follow a model similar to New Brunswick, where a commission is given a direction or mandate to go out and determine boundaries based on things like we’ve heard discussed here today – numbers, language, culture, regional realities – but it provides MLAs with an opportunity to provide an objection if they feel that the commission missed the point. The commission will take this, as well as all input from communities and from residents of a territory, and develop a final report. The trick here is we need to make sure that our legislation, if this motion is passed, is tight and solid, and clearly and fairly represents the things that you’ve heard in this House today, that language, that culture, that regional differences are taken into consideration and are built into our legislation. Then you take the politics out of it and have this commission go out, do the work, meet the public, talk to the public and come back with a binding decision. Madam Chair, I support this motion.