Comment 5 (12 October 2022) – comments and feedback

Quebec Community Group Network

Brief to the Quebec Electoral Boundaries Commission Prepared by the Quebec Community Groups Network

Core Issue:

There is a serious time lag between the establishment of electoral boundaries commissions and Statistics Canada's release of census data on official language communities. Because of this time lag and the commissions' tight deadlines, it is not possible for the commissions to consider the current realities of minority official language communities. This can have significant detrimental effects for those communities.

Situation:

A decennial census triggers a review of Canada's electoral boundaries in accordance with the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. The Act stipulates that every 10 years, the Governor in Council shall establish an electoral boundaries commission in each province to adjust electoral ridings who may have changed due to population growth/loss. As soon as possible after the completion of the decennial Census, the Chief Statistician of Canada must send a certified return showing the population of Canada and of each province to the Chief Electoral Officer. The Chief Electoral Officer subsequently sends this data to the provincial electoral commissioners.

It is important to note that the earliest data available to the commissions concerns only simple population statistics – how many people there are –not detailed demographic data like language characteristics or other data that would otherwise distinguish a community of interest. From this point, each commission will have no more than 10 months to complete a report for presentation to the House of Commons, outlining the considerations and proposals made by the commission concerning the division of the province into different electoral ridings.

When reviewing electoral boundaries, each commission has specific criteria to consider. The division of electoral districts must, as closely as possible, respect the electoral quotient decided upon in their respective provinces (+/- 25%). Also, Section 15 of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act states that:

• commissions must consider the community of interest or community of identity in or the historical pattern of an electoral district in the province and;
• a manageable geographic size for districts in sparsely populated, rural, or northern regions of the province.

The 2021 census indicated that Canada's population had grown since the last decennial census, yet the initial results of the calculations indicated that Quebec was to have its number of seats reduced to 77 from 78. Since the initial unveiling, the federal government passed bill C-14, the Preserving Provincial Representation in the House of Commons Act which stipulates that no province will have fewer members assigned to it than were assigned during the 43rd parliament. Essentially, Quebec will remain at no less than 78 seats moving forward.

After examining the electoral map drawn 10 years ago, the Commission has proposed to leave the boundaries of 17 electoral districts intact. Gaspésie will lose a member of Parliament (the Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia seat) and a new electoral district will be created north of Montréal, in the Laurentian Mountains (Les Pays d'en Haut). The boundaries of 60 other electoral districts will be modified to varying degrees to bring their population counts closer to the electoral quotient of 108,998. The removal of Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia will directly impact the over 1,500 English-speaking Quebecers who live in that riding and the readjustment of the surrounding ridings has the potential to adversely affect the English-speaking population of that entire region.

Issue:

It is unclear how Quebec's English-Speaking Community will be impacted by the redistribution of Federal Electoral Boundaries. Based on the current boundaries and using corrected First Official Language Spoken (FOLS) figures from the 2021 census, English-speakers can be found in all 78 electoral districts, with 28 per cent of districts home to a minority English-speaking population of at least 20 percent and 58 percent of districts home to an English-speaking minority population of at least 5 percent. Since linguistic data was released by Statistics Canada on August 17, we can see that based on the current boundaries, 73 of the current 78 ridings have experienced growth in their English-speaking minority populations. The new electoral boundaries redistribution was proposed before the committee had access to this data and it is therefore unlikely, they took these developments under consideration.

Members of Parliament and Community Organizations should be aware of the potential impact's readjustment can have on minority communities. A redistribution of boundaries affects the weight of individual voters, but it could also affect the voice of minority communities. The vitality and democratic rights of Official Language Minority Communities across Canada can be impacted by changing electoral districts. If new electoral boundaries are created without proper considerations, then a community's influence is weakened. If electoral boundaries are changed and lead to the diffusion of a community population, proper representation is difficult to achieve.

Given the timing of the proposal, the timing of the data release, and the technical acumen needed to discover how redistribution would impact linguistic minorities across 78 ridings, it is highly unlikely that the Commission, or the community, was able to determine the exact impact of redistribution on the English-speaking community of Quebec.

Issues with this process have been raised in the past. After the readjustment in 2002, the Commissioner of Official Languages launched an inquiry to determine if minority language community rights were being respected. Given that electoral boundary adjustment is performed by federal institutions, it is required to adhere to the Official Languages Act. The commissioner noted that in several provinces, minority language communities were not respected or consulted during the process. While some communities were successful in preventing changes to occur, others were not as fortunate, and it led to entire language minority communities losing their ability to properly represent themselves.

Similar issues occurred in 2012 with the English-speaking minority group in Quebec. Changes proposed would have negatively impacted English speaking communities in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and the Pontiac district. Changes were prevented thanks to the efforts of community organizations within the province as they effectively lobbied during public consultations. It is required that public consultations be held, and it is fortunate that in this instance, they were successful. Nonetheless, minority communities may not be as fortunate in the future and steps should be put in place to ensure a review of the process is done before public consultations.

Proposal:

Commissions cannot solely be responsible for these difficulties. There are questions about the process that, should be reconsidered. Proclamations establishing Electoral Boundary Commissions are issued once the Chief Electoral Officer has received population figures from the Chief Statistician. However, the Chief Statistician has been unable to release data relevant to communities of interest like Canada's English and French linguistic minority communities until months after proposals were drawn up. The QCGN believes it would be in keeping with the spirit of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act to wait until this information was available before proposed boundaries are created. Many Commissions previously reported concerns from the public during public consultations for failing to adequately represent/preserve "communities of interests".

The Quebec Community Groups Network proposes these recommendations:

1. Consider the impact the proposed readjustment to 60 electoral boundaries in Quebec may have on the Official Language Minority Community in Quebec. The readjustment of boundaries should not leave any English-speaking community across the province feeling disfranchised and powerless.
2. Proclamations establishing Electoral Boundary Commissions should not be made until more statistical data is available. It is understandable that the Chief Statistician requires time to properly compile all the demographic data for the country and therefore Commissions should not commence before a complete portrait is available.
3. Electoral Boundary Commissions should request/be made to wait until more demographic information be made available before they make their decisions, especially considering their mandate to consider "communities of interest or communities of identity"
4. Provide the Commissions longer than 10 months, to complete their proposals. While it is understandable that every action is time sensitive, democratic reform should not be rushed, especially if the results leave citizens feeling disenfranchised and without a voice.

Change is needed to ensure the Electoral Boundary Commissions work appropriately in their effort to readjust electoral ridings. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has a role to play in Federal Electoral Boundary Readjustment. It is therefore recommended that legislative changes are made to the current procedures to allow provincial commissions to make informed decisions about boundary readjustment.