Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I, too, would like to thank the committee for all the hard and extensive work as they went about the Electoral Boundaries Commission. I do want to say that we’re the ones that gave them instructions to look at 18 MLAs, 19 MLAs and/or 21 MLAs. I think it kind of limited them in how they could look at our territory and find the best arrangements for representation. They were kind of limited, so they came back with their recommendations and not all of them are popular. It really didn’t fix what we were looking for, which is equal and effective representation in all the constituencies.
However, that’s always been the past pressures as well. I think we heard our constituents and they said 18, let’s look at 18. Let’s have less MLAs. Nobody wants to see government grow, especially Members of the Legislative Assembly, so we looked at 18 and it becomes very politicized only because we are going to have to eliminate one riding. That still did not help out because some regions still have a lot of constituents to represent.
Looking at 19, it’s not the status quo, but it’s a rearranging of boundaries. I heard clearly from my constituents they don’t want to see growth. Rearranging the current boundaries, I think, is a
workable solution. I just want to say clearly for the record, too, that my constituents are listening. The Nahendeh riding is unaffected by this report.
When we looked at 21, it was important for me that not only Yellowknife gets an MLA but the regions get an MLA as well. So if Yellowknife grows by one, then the regions have to grow by one and I think that’s what was proposed with the 21 MLA scenario, as well, which is important for parity and political growth in our great Northwest Territories.
Just one further thing, they also recommend that future electoral boundaries be independent, they’re the ones that set the future growth, but we’re setting a small constituency and in other jurisdictions, even the federal system, I think they’re going up by about 30 Members of Parliament in the next election and that’s because they’ve got an independent commission that said you have to go by 30 in order to meet these certain parameters. I’m afraid that going independent like that will have us grow lots of MLAs in the Northwest Territories, just like leaves.
So, I’m not really in favour of an independent commission. At the same time there has to be another route or mechanism in which we look at how much our jurisdiction grows in MLAs for 41,000 people. Constituents have made it clear to me that having 24 or 26 MLAs is over-government, its overrepresentation. So I’m not really supportive of going to independent. There must be another way around it.
With that, those are my opening remarks, Madam Chair. Thank you very much.