Comment 68 – comments and feedback
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Wayne Hanchard, CAO and Clerk of the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge
Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution 2022: Your Proposal Dated August 19, 2022
On behalf of Council for the Municipality of Oliver Paipoogne I write to provide our comments on your proposal to redistribute federal electoral districts released on August 19, 2022. For your information Oliver Paipoonge is a small rural municipality west of the City of Thunder Bay.
We are opposed to the reduction of the number of electoral districts for Northern Ontario from ten to nine. Northern Ontario is a geographically large and diverse region that warrants more electoral districts than the Quota dictates, and we note the average shortfall for electoral districts in Northern Ontario has dropped from 24.63% using current boundaries to 12.22% using your proposed boundaries. While you cite the importance of the principle of effective representation, your numbers show cutting one district would reduce effective representation for Northern Ontario significantly.
We are opposed to the designation of a portion of our Municipality to the Kenora-Thunder Bay-Rainy River Electoral District and the remainder to the Thunder Bay-Superior North Electoral District. While we can accept the designation of portions of larger municipalities to one or more electoral districts, we think it is inappropriate for smaller municipalities to be treated in this manner. Residents in our small Municipality identify themselves with the Municipality and share many of the same interests, so our Municipality should be in only one federal electoral district. Currently our entire Municipality is in the Thunder Bay – Rainy River Electoral District. Given that our 2021 Census population is 6035, designation our entire Municipality in one or the other electoral districts would have little effect on the populations of these electoral districts, but would have a major effect in enabling better representation for our residents. We would prefer to be in the Kenora – Thunder Bay – Rainy River Electoral District along with our neighbouring small rural municipalities with which we share many common concerns.
Thank you for providing us an opportunity to comment on your proposal. We trust you will consider them carefully.
Yours truly,
Wayne Hanchard CAO/Clerk