Commentaire 33 (19 août 2022) – commentaires et rétroaction

From the Mayor and Council of Swan River

Dear Commissioners,

The Town of Swan River has reviewed the commission's proposal to increase the Electoral District of Churchill-Keewatinook-Aski (CKA), and decrease the Electoral District of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. Please accept our comments in opposition as we propose that our federal boundaries for our Electoral Districts remain unchanged for the following reasons:

Community Identity/Interest

"The Act, however, also requires the Commission to consider several other factors... respect communities of interest or identity...[and] respect historical patterns and the continuity of previous riding boundaries..."

While the Town understands the commission has followed its fundamental principals of voter parity among its ridings, taking population changes into account, and keeping communities together, we believe your proposal is not giving enough weight to the following factors. The proposed reduction of the Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa boundary draws a line directly through the Swan River Valley. You may be aware of the population trends in this area, though you may not understand that the Swan River Valley has its own identity, a social mosaic made up of the contributing communities from Benito to Sapotaweyak Cree Nation. We believe this area should not be torn apart. We are all in the same community together and to allow this separation will place our unified community on the outer edges of two different districts.

We would also like to point out to the commission that the RM of Minitonas-Bowsman and the RM of Mountain are the two most northern municipalities where the resident's economy and livelihoods are mainly based on agriculture and do not fit in with the CKA riding where the economy is more resource based. The Town does not believe that their community and its people would be best represented if they were included in a constituency composed mainly of northern and remote communities in addition to different economic and social priorities.

Finally, we would note that for these communities proposed to join the CKA District, Swan River has been a hub for their representation in which our MP has been able to attend our Valley (e.g. community BBQ, parades, campaigning). With this change, these communities will lose this hub which was within twenty minutes to an hour drive for them, and we are sceptical as to how the northern MP will be able to provide service at a similar level to these small communities who are on the border of their district. Ironically, the Northern MP assumedly will hold their events and appearances for these communities in Swan River, literally in the district for which they are proposed to be cut away from and which is already effectively represented by the Swan River – Dauphin – Neepawa district, in order to accommodate these communities.

Effective Representation vs Parity of the Vote

The Town of Swan River would like to comment directly to some points in the proposal.

"The Act, however, also requires the Commission to consider several other factors... maintain a manageable geographic size for ridings in sparsely populated, rural or northern regions of the province."

"The Commission recognizes that the large size of the Churchill—Keewatinook Aski electoral district poses challenges to effective representation, related to accessibility, commuting time and community of interest. However, technology has continued to improve, and new technologies allow for better access and communication, including by videoconference. As well, unlike some communities already in the riding, the added communities are accessible by road."

It is easy to state that candidates shall be equipped with proper funding and technology required to effectively represent their riding and meet the people they represent. However, challenges effectively remain. The monumental or impractical task of representing a large area such as the CKA district suggests to us that by keeping the size the same in order to maintain effective representation at the cost of some parity of the vote should be an important consideration.

"Subsection 15(1) of the Act requires that the population of each riding be as close as is reasonably possible to the provincial average, or electoral quota, which for Manitoba is 95,868."

"The Commission recognizes that, if the riding population continues to decline, as it has over the past several censuses, a different response than further expansion of the territory will likely be needed in the future."

The commission states their guidance variance of +/- 5% in desired population equity, and we realize that CKA is at -15.24% and that even the proposed -7.02% is a concession. We see that that there is indeed a large problem here, but the commission themselves have stated that we need to explore a different response to the simple answer of making the CKA district larger. The Town of Swan River heartily agrees and further argues that the time to explore those options is now. We do not beleive this problem will be going away and feel that the issue will be even more significant by the time we reach 2032.

Respectfully Yours,

Mayor and Council
Town of Swan River