Comment 137 – comments and feedback
Back to all comments and feedback from the public
Mike Jakubo
Councillor for Ward 7
City of Greater Sudbury
Deb McIntosh
Councillor for Ward 9
City of Greater Sudbury
See attached.
PO Box xxxx STN x xxx xxxxx xxxxxx Sudbury ON xxx xxx
CP 5000 Succ A
xxx xxx xxxxx
Sudbury ON xxx xxx
xxx.xxx.xxxx
www.greatersudbury.ca www.grandsudbury.ca
September 22, 2022
Ms. Paula Puddy
Commission Secretary
Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario
PO BOX 37018 Southdale
London, Ontario
N6E 3T3
Dear Ms. Puddy and Commission Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to express our strong support for maintaining the existing number of ridings in Northern Ontario and maintaining the existing riding boundaries.
The existing Federal riding bound aries already give Northern Ontario a smaller voice than it receives in Provincial Parliament, with ridings covering vast geographical areas, while fairly grouping communities with similar characteristics. This affords communities within the existing ridings fair and equitable access to MP offices and services as well as to Federal funding programs. This level of representation, service and access must be maintained.
Our existing ridings respect the former towns which joined to form the City of Greater Sudbury, in particular, the former Town of Nickel Centre is currently fully within the Nickel Belt riding. However, the proposed boundary changes will split Nickel Centre with Garson, Falconbridge, Coniston and Wahnapitae joining the Sudbury Riding and Skead joining the Manitoulin-Nickel Belt Riding. As City Councillors for these communities of Greater Sudbury we contend that this further fractures the voice of the people when an arbitrary line is drawn which slices through the heart of a community.
We must also preserve the unified bilingual and francophone culture shared across Nickel Belt and protect the number of voices in Ottawa uniting behind the people of Northern Ontario and the rich bodies of natural resources sitting under and around our communities.
We urge the Commission to please look beyond the hard population data and consider the vast expanse of geographic area covered by existing ridings as well as the best interests of the many Northern Ontario communities which vary in size from large urban centres to small rural communities.
We ask that the Northern Ontario voice and our rich cultural heritage be respected and not diminished; and in doing so, we respectfully ask that the existing number of ridings in Northern Ontario be maintained and that the existing riding boundaries in Northern Ontario be maintained.
Sincerely,
Mike Jakubo
Mike Jakubo
Councillor for Ward 7
xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.ca
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
Deb McIntosh
Deb McIntosh
Councillor for Ward 9
xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.ca
(xxx) xxx-xxxx