Commentaire 184 – commentaires et rétroaction

Eric Melillo

See attached.

October 1, 2022

Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution-Ontario Commission

PO Box 37018 Southdale

London, Ontario, N6E 3T3

Sent by Email: ON@redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca

To Whom it May Concern,

I'm writing to you in my capacity as the current Member of Parliament for the Kenora Riding, a position I've held since 2019, and a resident of Kenora. I wish to thank you for your work to develop this proposed boundary redistribution. You have been tasked with a difficult and important job to balance the common interests of communities and the manageability of providing service to constituents along with stated population targets.

I appreciate the goals the commission was aiming to achieve with this proposal-increasing Indigenous representation, grouping communities of common interest together, and balancing population. However I believe, due to the unique nature of northern Ontario when compared to the rest of the province, Elections Canada must place greater emphasis on the commonalities between communities in northern Ontario rather than simply aiming to achieve population targets.

To that end, I have deep concerns over these proposed boundaries which will split communities of interest, fraction service catchment areas, and will put historically unique interests at odds with one another. Further, I share my opposition to the fact northern Ontario is set to lose a seat in this proposal. The larger size of ridings in northern Ontario creates difficulties in providing services from MP offices that constituents rely on. Losing a seat in this redistribution would exacerbate those challenges.

Communities of Interest

Northwestern Ontario is unique, it encompasses three treaty areas and the Métis homeland. It is a largely rural and remote area with unique challenges that differ from the rest of the province. Northwestern Ontario suffers from severe infrastructure gaps and lags behind the rest of the country in access to government services, equitable housing, and internet access.

The current proposal will haphazardly fraction and split the existing Treaty 3 territory and the communities within that have a long history of collaboration, common traditions, language, and governance. While I deeply respect the Commission's efforts to create Kiiwetinoong-Mushkegowuk in which Indigenous voters are the majority of the voting base, the current lines divide and fracture Treaty 3 as a result. The proposed redistribution will result in Treaty 3 being a small voting base in each riding, rather than a large voting base in one riding. I would encourage the Commission to reconsider the current proposal and how it divides Treaty communities, which as we know are communities with deep historical ties to one another.

Additionally, the Kenora District Municipal Association (KDMA) is made up of nine municipalities, Kenora, Dryden, Machin, Pickle Lake, Red Lake, Ear Falls, Sioux Narrows- Nestor Falls, Sioux Lookout, and Ignace. This association has a longstanding history of collaboration, initiating change, and advocating for the region. The Commission's current proposal will divide these municipalities into two ridings when they would certainly be better served by remaining together. These municipalities have common interests and the association and should be represented by the same MP.

Altering Service Catchment

As mentioned previously there are equity issues for those living in the northwest regarding their access to basic services, and the existing infrastructure gaps. This has led to the communities in the northwest collaborating and coordinating with each other to create the change and programming that our region needs but the government is unable or unwilling to provide.

In addition to the KDMA boundaries mentioned earlier, the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB) is an organization that provides direly needed social services within the region. KDSB operates within the following municipalities: Dryden, Kenora, Ear Falls Ignace, Machin, Pickle Lake, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, and Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, along with representing all the un-incorporated areas within the region. The Commission's current proposal divides the catchment area of KDSB. From the communities represented within KDMA and KDSB's service areas, I believe it is clear that the municipalities of Kenora, Dryden, Machin, Sioux Lookout, Ignace, Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, Red Lake, Ear Falls, and Pickle Lake are historical communities of interest with long-standing traditions of working together and being apart of the Kenora District.

Given this obvious longstanding tradition of the municipalities being together I would urge the commission to reconsider their decision to remove Red Lake, Ear Falls, Pickle Lake, and Sioux Lookout from the Kenora District riding.

Further, the addition of a piece of Thunder Bay to the Kenora district is an odd choice and one that is directly at odds with existing government services. The vast majority of northwestern Ontario residents will travel to Winnipeg for passport services or healthcare, rather than travel to Thunder Bay to access those government services. There is absolutely no longstanding connection between Thunder Bay and the Kenora district. Rather the two regions historically at both the federal and provincial levels have been treated as distinctly different regions and should continue to be considered so.

Diverging Interests

One of my largest concerns is that the interests of the rural and remote Kenora district will be forced to compete with the interests of Thunder Bay, an urban center. I was born and raised in Kenora and spent a brief period of my adult life living in Thunder Bay. I know that the interests between the Kenora district and Thunder Bay are not similar, and are rather incredibly different.

For example, many communities currently within the Kenora district are under long-term boil water advisories, don't have internet or cell service access, and suffer from a lack of access to emergency services. Urban Thunder Bay does not suffer from these issues. The city of Thunder Bay has distinct and important issues that deserve to be properly represented but the city does not suffer from the severe lack of access to services and infrastructure gaps the Kenora District suffers from. It is not fair to the residents within the current Kenora riding to have to compete with an urban city center for their interests to be properly represented.

Logistics of Representation

As a current Member of Parliament, I am acutely aware of the potential access to representation issues the current proposal will cause. Currently, and historically within the Kenora riding the elected Member of Parliament has two offices, one in Kenora and one in Dryden. This allows those in the other communities to have within a couple of hours drive access to their Member of Parliament's office. The more Northern communities are most frequently served virtually and when I travel in person to their communities. However, I am distinctly aware that unlike many other MPs, having two constituency offices results in deep cuts to the Member of Parliament's office operating budget. With the new proposed Kenora-Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding, I am logistically unsure how an MP could ensure their constituents have equitable and fair access to their office within the constraints of our operating budgets. I worry that under the Kenora-Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding constituents would see less of their MP and have less access, due to the operating budget constraints and the distance between Kenora and Thunder Bay.

Undoubtedly, Thunder Bay constituents falling under this riding would likely see less of their MP than they do now and have hampered access to their elected official.

I urge the Commission to consider the implications their proposal will have on equitable access to one's elected official and the logistics of a Member of Parliament's operating budget.

Conclusion

For the reasons outlined above, I kindly ask the Commission to reconsider their northwestern Ontario redistribution. I suggest keeping Treaty 3 and Kenora district communities together within a new Kenora-Rainy River riding allowing these communities of interest to be represented by one MP. I further recommend removing Thunder Bay from this riding. This would preserve the riding of Kiiwetinoong-Mushkegowuk,with minor adjustments, and enable the commission to create a Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding or include the entirety of the city of Thunder Bay in Thunder Bay-Superior North.

Lastly, in the 2021 federal election, there were severe issues with access to voting in the northern First Nations communities I currently represent. I urge the Commission prior to moving forward with the proposed Kiiwetinoong-Muskegowuk riding to work alongside local leadership and Elections Canada to ensure these systemic voting issues will not reoccur.

Thank you for your diligent work and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Eric Melillo

Eric Melillo

Member of Parliament

Kenora Riding