Overview – Ontario
This Report presents the final electoral districts drawn by the Federal Electoral Boundary Commission for the Province of Ontario. The Commission was tasked with drawing 122 electoral districts in the Province of Ontario.
The Commission was committed to achieving voter parity throughout the province as much as reasonably possible, as mandated by the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act.
Each electoral district shall, as close as reasonably possible, correspond to the Provincial Electoral Quota (the Quota
). The Quota is the total population divided by the number of districts. For 2022, the Quota for Ontario is 116,590.
Historical patterns, communities of interest and identity, and manageable geographic size for districts in sparsely populated, rural or northern regions of the province were also considered.
The Commission is independent, impartial and non-partisan. There is no consideration of voting patterns or the partisan impacts of the redistribution plan.
The Commission had the responsibility of creating one additional electoral district, given that Ontario had been allocated 122 seats.
The Commission concluded that the effect of uneven population shifts across the province, with significant growth in some areas and only modest growth in others over the past decade, required adjustments to many existing district boundaries in order to address patterns of voter under-representation and over-representation.
In creating our proposal for a redistribution plan, the Commission endeavoured to limit the deviation from the Quota to no more than plus or minus 10 per cent.
The Commission achieved that result in all parts of the province other than Northern Ontario, where the proposed redistribution plan envisioned eight electoral districts with populations within minus 15 per cent of the Quota, and one riding where the Commission found that extraordinary circumstances
warranted a considerably smaller population exceeding minus 25 per cent from the Quota.
It is important to note that the Commission's endeavour, described in the proposal, was not a self-imposed limitation on deviation of Quota, but rather a benchmark or starting point from which subsequent adjustments would be necessary after public consultation.
As our proposal made clear, the Commission welcomed input and information from the public.
The Commission's efforts to promote equality of voting power was appreciated and positively commented on in a number of submissions.
The Commission was provided with considerable local knowledge during the public consultation process. As one township put it, their submission provided the context of the cultural impact of the proposed boundary adjustment on their community.
The time and effort committed by the public to this important democratic process was remarkable and very much valued by the Commission.
As a result of the extensive public submissions, the Commission modified our proposed redistribution plan.
Modifications were also made with the opportunity to consider the 2021 linguistic and demographic data made available by Statistics Canada after our proposal was completed.
These modifications have resulted in deviations from Quota beyond the range the Commission originally endeavoured to achieve. However, these results are necessary to better achieve effective representation. The Commission also adjusted the geographic size of electoral districts, particularly in Northern Ontario.
Nevertheless, the following deviations from Quota were achieved:
51% of our districts are within plus or minus 5%;
84% of our districts are within plus or minus 10%;
94% of our districts are within plus or minus 15%.
These results are consistent with the Commission's legislative mandate.
Considering that mandate, the Commission was unable to return the status quo to Northern Ontario and the City of Toronto and maintain the current number of districts in those areas.
The Commission also considered First Nations communities and the interests of Franco-Ontarians in drawing these boundaries. While our proposal endeavoured to create a remote northern district (Kiiwetinoong—Mushkegowuk) that was to have a majority Indigenous population, we have withdrawn this concept based on many submissions attesting that the vast geographic size and diverse Indigenous composition of such a riding would undermine effective representation.
We have noted in this report that, in light of Canada's obligations to reconciliation, further action by Parliament is required to ensure effective representation of Indigenous Peoples – especially in the Far North.
Acknowledgments
The Commission is indebted to the commitment and dedication of Paula Puddy, the Secretary of the Commission, and Nicholas Hinsperger from Elections Canada, who is our statistician and geographer.
The Commission also acknowledges the contributions of Elections Canada. They were responsible for the creation and maintenance of our website, the social media interaction, the creation of the detailed maps and the preparation of the legal descriptions, the publication of our proposal and the notices of our public hearings, the technical and procedural aspects of our virtual hearings and the posting on our website of the written submissions received by the Commission.