Commentaire 281 – commentaires et rétroaction

Stephanie Weiler

I am writing to voice my opinion in the proposed redistribution of Federal Electoral Districts. I live in the rural Kingston area and vote in the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston district. The proposed area is to move rural Kingston to the Leeds-Grenville district. Mark Gerretsen is also campaigning to move rural Kingston to the Kingston and 1000 Islands district.

I would like to say that my first choice would be to stay with Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston district. My second option would be to move with Leeds-Grenville.

My opinion is formed with my wish to have my collective voice be with like-minded neighbours who have similar needs as me. When voting for a representative who is responsible to bringing our needs to parliament, I don't want my rural voice to be drowned out by the urban voice.

An indication that the urban Kingston has a louder voice than the rural one is demonstrated by how the City of Kingston treats the rural community. The families north of the 401 seem to be forgotten. For example, our rinks in the winter are flooded and maintained by volunteers in the community and not by the city. Another example was that we are not able to participate in the rain barrel program from the city because only Utilities Kingston customers are eligible. Since we are all on wells north of the city, we were not able to buy a refurbished rain barrel.

Mr. Gerretsen is sending out the talking points on why merging with the Kingston and 1000 Islands' district is a good idea. His points are as follows:

1. That the area shares police and fire services with Kingston.
2. That the areas social, cultural, and economic activity all centers around Kingston (not Gananoque, Brockville, or Prescott).
3. That the area pays property taxes to the City of Kingston (not Gananoque, Brockville, or Prescott).
4. That the average distance to the constituency office would be 10 km in Kingston versus 90 km in Brockville.

These points are exactly why I feel that we are NOT meant to join the Kingston district.

1. We share do not really share fire service with Kingston. While it might be true that our taxes go towards supporting the fire services, the urban Kingston has career firefighters while the rural Kingston has volunteer firefighters. These two services are very different. The career firefighters are paid for their service and are paid well. The volunteers are dedicated neighbours who have full time jobs and families and choose to respond to calls when they are able to. Enrollment, emergency response, and retention are the struggles we face. Does urban Kingston understand that need?
2. Our social, cultural, and economic activities do not center around Kingston. We live outside of the city because we don't want to be surrounded by crowds. We may choose to participate in the 'culture' of the city but would much rather be surrounded by friends and neighbours at a bonfire. We do have our own cultural events that we participate in like block parties, pumpkin festivals, plowing matches, farmer's markets, etc. that the urban dwellers do not come to participate in. Our internet is even different than the city. Our house is located in a dead zone and the only available internet is satellite and we pay $149/month for 200GB of data. Does urban Kingston understand that need?
3. We do pay our property taxes to the City of Kingston but that is also a sore point for me. Our taxes pay for the city infrastructure that we do not get to use. The way that the money is spent does not always make sense either. We have had street sweepers on our road in the past followed tractors with the manure spreader. We had lines on our little side road painted for our minimal local traffic (the road isn't wide enough for the tractors to stay between the lines). We have wells that we don't get any city compensation should something go wrong. We don't have public transit available to us. If our car breaks down, we have to rely on a neighbor to bring us to work. We don't have the back up of public transit. Does urban Kingston understand these needs?
4. It takes me 27 minutes to get to the Kingston and it would take me 1 hr 15 minutes to get to the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston constituency office. And it would take 30 minutes to get to the Leeds-Grenville office. A 30-minute drive through the country is not nearly as stressful as a 30-minute drive within the urban Kingston limits. The physical proximity to the constituency office is a valid point but the need does not outweigh the benefit when compared to the other talking points.

Now, I understand that these points have no bearing on the Federal jurisdiction of a member of parliament. But I will use these talking points to demonstrate how different the needs are between rural and urban constituents. I think the voting collective should be about similar needs and not proximity to constituency offices.

Thank you for your time.

Stephanie Weiler