Commentaire 159 – commentaires et rétroaction

Dinty Garnett

See attached.

Thank you for the opportunity to voice my thoughts and recommendations to the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission of Ontario. I realize that

your job is a difficult one in view of the constitutional and other criteria that bound your work. My comments will deal with the 10 current ridings

in Northern Ontario. I have spent most of my life in Northern Ontario and have lived in North Bay, Hearst, Red Lake and Thunder Bay. My wife is

from Hornepayne. As much as I would like to retain 10 ridings in Northern Ontario, I do understand that the current numbers and changing demographics

support less than that. The population growth for most of Northern Ontario has been stagnate for many years.

First off, I would like to say that I totally disagree with the creation of the proposed riding of Kiiwetinoong - Muskegowuk for two reasons.

1. It appears as though your commission is trying to create a riding based on ethnicity. We are all equal and supposedly the same. Race should not be
2. a criteria. The moment you allow such a riding, whether you intended to or not, will give credence to others to advocate for such a riding. If there
3. is to be any ridings based on race or ethnicity, let the federal government and provinces amend the constitution.
4. With ridings ideally having a population of approximately 110,000 to 120,000, creating a riding with only 36,000, goes against the concept of fairness
5. and equity. Having a riding with such a small population, the people will have a much greater say or weight when compared to a riding with 90,000
6. or more people. There should be as much parity as possible among all the ridings.

As for exact boundary locations, I do not have the resources or data to give exact locations. What I am going to do is use latitude and longitude coordinates

to give a rough indication where some of the changes should take place.

Boundary Recommendations

7. Draw a line from north to south at 84.5000 longitude from approximately 55.2500 latitude (just east of Peawanuck) to a point at 47.7500 latitude
8. (SE of Wawa) and thence diagonally or at 225 degrees of compass to the Canada - USA border, Lake Superior. The area west of this location out to the
9. Manitoba border is what I will call North-western Ontario and will form the new location of the current 3 ridings of Kenora, Thunder Bay - Rainy River
10. and Thunder Bay - Superior North. Kenora would pick up Peawanuck, Thunder Bay - Superior North would pick up Hornepayne, White River and Wawa.
11. There would be not much of a population gain but would eliminate this huge discrepancy of a riding having only 36,000 people. In addition, I would
12. recommend that Kenora not become part of Thunder Bay - Rainy River. Kenora is close to 500 km from Thunder Bay and has a much closer affinity
13. with Winnipeg. As well try to keep the Harbour Expressway and Hwy 11 westerly as the dividing line between Thunder Bay - Rainy River and Thunder -
14. Superior North as this line closely approximates the dividing line between the old cities of Port Arthur and Fort William.
15. Draw a line from at Longitude 48.3000 degrees westerly from the Ontario - Quebec border out to the aforementioned 84.5000 degrees longitude.
16. Everything north and east would comprise the new riding of Timmins, Cochrane and James Bay. Essentially the current Timmins - James Bay riding but
17. picking up the communities of Hearst, Kapuskasing and Cochrane but losing Kirkland Lake.
18. Your proposed new Sault Ste. Marie riding, which has lost Hornepayne, White River and Wawa, should pick up Blind River and possibly Elliot Lake.
20. Consideration should be given to splitting the city of Sudbury into two ridings similar to what we currently have in Thunder Bay. This would be
21. accomplished by taking the current ridings of Nickel Belt, Sudbury and the remainder of Algoma, Manitoulin and Kapuskasing riding and form
22. two ridings. West Nipissing (Sturgeon Falls) would stay part of these two ridings.
23. Nipissing - Timiskaming riding, with the changes mention in #2, will pick up Kirkland Lake and Englehart and more or less keep its current west boundaries.
25. Nipissing - Timiskaming should not pick up South River as proposed and should stay with Parry Sound - Muskoka. Consideration should also be giving to moving
26. Algonquin Park and even Powassan to Parry Sound - Muskoka.

These suggested changes would, in part, meet your objective of reducing Northern Ontario from ten to nine ridings. Yes, the populations of Kenora and a new Timmins,

Cochrane and James Bay riding will still be well below the desired population but at least it substantially reduces the exaggerated anomaly that the commission has

proposed in the creation of the Kiiwetinoong - Mushkegowuk riding.

Thank you for your consideration,

Dinty Garnett