100 Mile House residents could find themselves in the Cariboo-Prince George riding, joining Quesnel and Williams Lake, by the next federal election.
Boundary changes are being proposed by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for BC.
Madame Justice Mary Saunders is the Chair of the Commission.
“We looked at the Cariboo-Prince George riding and we saw that there was a part of the Cariboo Regional District that was not in that riding, and it seemed to us a sensible thing to do to make a proposal to that effect. So the result of that is 100 Mile House would be a part of the riding of Cariboo-Prince George.”
The Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding, which 100 Mile was previously a part of, would then be called the Kamloops-Thompson-Lytton riding under the proposed change.
There are no changes being proposed for Quesnel or Williams Lake.
A small portion of Prince George would be moved into the Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies riding.
Saunders says this is a domino effect from BC getting one new riding between Vernon and Kelowna.
“The new riding would be called Vernon-Lake Country, at least that’s what we’re suggesting. We’ll hear what people think of that. That meant we took people from the Kelowna riding to put into it, and we took people from the North Okanagain riding to put into this new riding, and that left those two ridings short of people. Then we were able to fill them up with people from the other ridings, which were also overpopulated compared to the provincial quota.”
Saunders says the idea is to have fair representation for each riding.
“There were slightly over 5 million people, according to the census, which means BC is getting one new riding. The average population per riding is 116,300 people. We try to make everybody’s vote count the same. They can vary up to 25 percent for sparsely populated areas.”
Saunders says the one exception in BC is Skeena-Bulkley Valley.
The federal ridings are reviewed every 10 years.
Saunders says the last time the ridings were changed, BC received 6 more seats, one on Vancouver Island, one in Vancouver, and four went into the rest of the Lower Mainland.
The Commission will be taking input on the proposals from the public, including public meetings in Kamloops on June 16th at the Coast Hotel, and in Prince George on June 22nd, also at the Coast Hotel.
There is also a virtual hearing on September 28th.
Below there are other ways people can take part as well.
Ways to participate
You can send your notice of representation to the Commission Secretary by:
emailing it to [email protected]
filling out the Public hearing notice form
using the Interactive Mapping Tool
If you wish to make a representation at a hearing, you should inform the Commission in writing no later than one week prior to the hearing at which you wish to make the representation.
Your notice of representation should include:
- your name, address and contact information
- the organization you represent (if any)
- the date of the public hearing that you wish to attend
- a short overview of the issues you intend to address
- your official language of preference
- any accommodations you may need
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