Clearwater County is set to voice its opposition to proposed provincial electoral boundaries.
The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission is looking at redrawing maps throughout the province, including breaking up the current Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre riding.
The current proposal would see the town of Rocky Mountain House included in a new district called Lacombe-Rocky Mountain House, while parts of Clearwater County would be split up into parts of Mountain View-Kneehill and Banff-Jasper.
At its Jan. 13 meeting, council authorized Reeve Jordon Northcott to attend a Jan. 19 hearing in Edmonton to voice the county’s opposition to the redistricting.
The reeve’s presentation will focus on a number of concerns:
- The proposed redistribution would result in Clearwater County no longer being contained within one provincial electoral division.
- The proposal would fragment the County across multiple ridings, thus running the risk of diluting rural interests and dispersing Clearwater County’s population across ridings with differing priorities and urban-rural dynamics.
- The proposed ridings are anticipated to encompass significantly larger geographic areas, a trend that continues to disproportionately affect rural Alberta. Expanding the geographic size of rural electoral divisions places additional strain on Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to effectively serve constituents.
- Dividing Clearwater County among multiple MLAs would create practical challenges for residents, council, and administration. These include confusion regarding representation, increased administrative complexity, difficulties coordinating provincial advocacy.
Councillor Tyler McCauley indicated he’s had discussions with MLA Jason Nixon who not only voiced strong opposition to the redrawing, but also indicated the new boundaries would likely not be coming into effect.
However, Northcott says that decision has yet to be confirmed.
Clearwater County intends to urge the commission to reconsider boundary options and to maintain the county within a single provincial electoral division wherever possible.
A Lacombe-Rocky Mountain House district had been proposed by the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Committee. (Alberta EBC)
At its Dec. 16 board meeting, Wild Rose School Division (WRSD) also voiced similar opposition to the changes.
Division concerns also surrounded representation, as Nixon currently represented the entire WRSD boundary.
With the county divided amongst three districts, the division is concerned that common rural interests would be diminished and legislative representation would be divided.
The board also directed administration to provide feedback on proposed changes to the Alberta electoral boundaries.
As such, it is providing feedback to the commission requesting no change to the current electoral boundaries.
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In October, the Electoral Boundaries Commission updated a set of recommendations which have been released on how Alberta’s provincial ridings should be divided.
The interim report submitted made some sizable changes from the one in the summer.
One of the big changes is the elimination of many of the proposed urban-rural hybrids.
Notably, a previous proposal to the commission would have split the City of Lethbridge into four such hybrids, but that is no longer the case in the updated version.
However, another proposed change is not sitting well with the Town of Coaldale.
Mayor Jack Van Rijn, along with the rest of town council, voted this week to submit a letter to the Commission, saying they want to stay in their current riding of Taber-Warner.
The recommendation is that Coaldale join an updated Livingstone-Macleod district, which would have it represented alongside communities such as Picture Butte, Nobleford, Fort Macleod, Crowsnest Pass, Waterton, and, depending on two possible options, Nanton.
“It makes no sense to me, whatsoever,” says Van Rijn. “I say this with all respect – what does Coaldale have to do with Livingstone-Macleod?”
He tells Pattison Media that Coaldale functions east-to-west, not north-to-south.
~ with files from LethbridgeNewsNow
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