Comment 159 – comments and feedback

Adam van Koeverden

Good day and thank you for the opportunity to submit a written recommendation for the redistribution of the Halton Region.

I presented in person in Milton, and have followed the presentations of others closely.

As one changes the boundaries of the proposed ridings, a domino effect occurs whereby other regions are impacted. For that reason, I'm limiting my comments to the exterior boundaries of the proposed ridings of Burlington and Oakville Lakeshore, Burlington-Milton West and Georgetown Milton East.

Halton's population makes it a perfect candidate for 5 discrete ridings. However, when I make a map to produce those 5 evenly populated ridings, it leaves Guelph and Wellington HH in chaos - so I've left those alone and decided to focus on the riding where I am the current MP, and those that surround it in Halton. I did include maps copied below with 5 and 7 ridings, respecting those boundaries.

Priorities:

1. Naming. Milton should be the first word in the western riding. When searching alphabetically (such as on the redistribution website), it's important that Milton is preserved as the first word in one of the new ridings.
2. Campbellville and North Milton. It makes no sense to remove the top of the Town of Milton from the riding of Burlington Milton West. All of Wards 1&2 of Milton should be preserved together in that new riding - which includes correcting the strange jog on Ontario St/hwy25 as the dividing line - boundaries should be straight lines for simplicity and to avoid confusion.
3. Best attempts at one, but max two municipalities per riding. The proposed Georgetown Milton East / riding covers a huge swath of east Halton, including Oakville, Milton and Georgetown, sending the message that these neighbourhoods are all extras or leftovers, without a consolidated identity. My proposal ensures that each new riding is a logical shape with natural boundaries — major, straight roads, typically town / city boundaries, but often ward boundaries as well. My version of Georgetown Milton East doesn't include any of Oakville, but does include the neighbourhoods of Timberlea, Coates and Cobban in Milton. I believe that efforts should be made to keep Acton and Georgetown in the same riding, though I had difficulty achieving that.
4. The seven riding map I presented in my submission isn't that different from the proposed one, but what it does achieve with these priorities is significant. The populations are all between 109,000 and 121,000, they are divided along straight lines and existing boundaries. Communities of significance are conserved and the changes are minimized wherever possible.
5. I strongly believe that remaining bound to the 116,000 limit, actually results in worse representation than better representation. People need to be able to get to their MP offices. They should see their elected representatives at local events, and this is only possible when communities remain together, even at the expense of perfectly distributed ridings by population.

A good example is with Halton Hills

Thank you,

Adam van Koeverden