Comment 177 – comments and feedback

Cassandra Child, Clerk/Treasurer, on behalf of Township of Black River-Matheson Council

See attached.

Corporation of the Township of Black River - Matheson

xxx xxxxxx xxx, P.O. Box xxx, Matheson, ON xxx xxx

Telephone (xxx) xxx-xxxx Fax (xxx) xxx-xxxx

Website www.twobrm.ca Office of the Administration

The Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario

September 30th, 2022

Legislative Building

x xxxxx xxxx Toronto, ON

xxx xxx

Dear Premier Ford:

RE: Township of Black River-Matheson Council Resolution #2022-225 in opposition to the Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution

At the Regular Council Meeting held September 27th, 2022, Council of The Corporation of the Township of Black River-Matheson passed a Resolution in opposition to the Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution as follows:

Resolution #2022-225

Moved by Councillor Dave Dyment Seconded by Councillor Kyla Riach

"That Council receive the following as information: Federal Electoral Boundary Commission Letter from Charlie Angus and FONOM Electoral Districts Redistribution Letters from Township of Coleman and St.Charles

And that Council support the Electoral Districts Redistribution Letters from Charlie Angus and FONOM ;

And that Council support resolution N0.22-08-31-08 from the Township of Coleman, and the resolution from the Municipality of St.Charles regarding Federal Electoral Boundary Commission redistributions;

And whereas, the Electoral Boundary Commission has proposed to remove one of the electoral ridings from Northern Ontario;

And whereas, the proposal to diminish Northern Ontario's voice in Parliament will have a detrimental effect on participatory democracy and regional development as the issues in Northern Ontario are significantly different than the issues facing the urban south;

And whereas, the Federal Boundary Commission proposal to cut representation in the north is contrary to the 2017 electoral boundary changes for Ontario that recognized the need to add two seats to ensure fair participation for northern residents;

And whereas, many of the existing ridings in Northern Ontario are already larger than many European countries, a situation that will only be worsened by the addition of massively new regions to service;

And whereas, the proposed new super ridings will force municipalities to compete fora limited amount of riding funding which will further exacerbate inequities in the north;

And whereas, Northern Ontario's population per riding is already much higher than many other rural and isolated regions in Canada's North;

And whereas, any changes to electoral boundaries should be based on the principles of maintaining communities of interest within boundaries that are equitable in terms of population and geography Page 10 of 12

Now, therefore be it resolved that this Council calls on the Electoral Boundary Commission to maintain the electoral representation of Northern Ontario and ensure that any boundary changes are done in a manner that responds to regional and local needs.

Further that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Premier of Ontario, The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario, Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and FONOM."

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Cassandra Child at cchildtwpbrm.ca

Yours truly,

Cassandralew

Cassandra Child, Dipl.M.A., AOMC

Clerk/Treasurer, On behalf of Township of Black River-Matheson Council

cc: Paula Puddy, Commission Secretary, Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission

(ON redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca)

Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AM 0) (xxx@xxx.xx.xx)

FONOM (xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx