Comment 14 – comments and feedback

Janet Horner

Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts

Ontario Division

Paula.puddy@redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca

Commission Members,

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to present some alternate suggestions for the realignment of the Federal and Provincial boundaries. This is a difficult task and one where you will always make some people happy and others not so much! I do not envy you your work.

As Mayor of Mulmur Township, I would like to speak on behalf of Mulmur and the County of Dufferin. At the September 8th meeting of Dufferin County Council, the County unanimously passed a motion stating:

Moved by Councillor Creelman, seconded by Councillor Soloman

That Dufferin County strongly opposes the proposed change to Provincial and Federal riding boundaries that removes the Township of East Garafraxa and the Township of Mulmur from the same riding as the remainder of Dufferin County;

And that staff and members of Council attend the virtual regional consultation session on September 28, 2022 to express opposition.

-Carried-

In addition to the goal of equal representation, a goal of your commission and of municipal, provincial and federal governments should be to make the electoral system easy to understand and access. This serves to bring more people into the democratic process. Arbitrary and confusing boundaries create unintended barriers.

In Dufferin County, we share the same concerns of many of the speakers before the Commission that historical boundaries, communities of interest and geography should be considered in any realignment.

Dufferin County has a relatively small population of 66,000 people. As you can imagine, our community of interest is compact and our concerns are relatively similar. The towns of Orangeville, Shelburne and Grand Valley and the surrounding townships work well together and have access to the Federal and Provincial elected representatives that represent Dufferin. Hiving off the Township of East Grarafraxa to the Wellington riding and the Township of Mulmur to a Simcoe riding makes for a fragmented approach to Dufferin County issues whether they be infrastructure, social issues, housing or development. Speaking with one voice, to one representative will always be more effective.

As our community is small, it would be better to adjust our boundaries north or south to let Dufferin remain whole and be combined with one other municipality – whether that be Caledon or Simcoe. We understand that there will be a domino effect to any move that is made but given some of the other suggestions for realignment that were made at the hearing on September 28, I believe there is room for those adjustments to be made.

At the hearing, you received many solid common-sense solutions to the task before you that I hope will be given consideration. Local people have provided the "ground truthing" to the proposals, raising serious concerns but also providing viable solutions.

I look forward to the final report and hope that it will reflect many of the great ideas that came forward from Ontario residents.

Thank you,

Janet Horner

Janet Horner

Mayor, Mulmur Township

Councillor, County of Dufferin