April 18, 1996 Electoral Boundaries Commission Public Hearings 505

April 18, 1996 Electoral Boundaries Commission Public Hearings 505 Title: Thursday, April 18, 1996 ebc9596 submit our concluding report to the Speaker before the end of June of this year. Electoral Boundaries Commission Public Hearings Three, as I have said, the commission is required to hold two sets Lethbridge of public hearings. The first set of hearings was completed last year in November. This second set of hearings will be completed in April 2:03 p.m. of this year, and after we have considered the input from the [Chairman: Chief Judge Edward R. Wachowich] hearings, we will craft our final report for submission to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. THE CHAIRMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, would you please be Four, we are required to hold public hearings to enable seated. I'd like to start the hearing. I want to welcome you and to representations to be made to us by any person or organization in say good afternoon. I would also like to make a few introductory Alberta about the area, the boundaries, and the names of electoral remarks. divisions that we have set out in our first report. I believe we have My name is Edward Wachowich, and I am chairman of the given reasonable notice of the times and places for this second round Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission. I'm also the Chief Judge of hearings. of the Provincial Court of Alberta. Five, the commission has the power to change its mind with Let me introduce you to the other members of the commission. respect to its preliminary proposal. When the second round of Robert Grbavac of Raymond, Alberta, is on my immediate left, Joe hearings is completed, we will also complete our deliberations and Lehane of Innisfail is on my immediate right, John McCarthy of lay before the Speaker our final proposals with respect to electoral Calgary is on my far right, and Wally Worth of Edmonton is on my boundaries. The Speaker shall make the report public. It shall be far left. The five people you see before you make up the published in the Alberta Gazette. commission. I want to say that we are very happy to be here to Six, if more than one report is submitted from among the members receive your comments and your criticisms and to consider your of the commission, the report of the majority is the report of the thinking with respect to the proposals that we have made in our commission, but if there is no majority, my report, or the report of report, released in January. the chair, shall be the report of the commission. Why are we here? The commission is here to listen to your Seven, the final report of the commission is then laid at the comments on the proposals made with respect to the electoral earliest opportunity before the Legislative Assembly, immediately boundaries in Alberta in our first report, which I believe received if it is then sitting or within seven days after the beginning of the very wide circulation throughout the province of Alberta. The next sitting. commission is charged by law to examine the areas, the boundaries, Eight, then it is up to the Legislative Assembly by resolution to and the names of electoral divisions in Alberta and to make approve or to approve with alterations the proposals of the recommendations with respect to them. commission and to introduce a Bill to establish new electoral As I have said, we made the preliminary recommendations in divisions for Alberta in accordance with the resolution. This law January. These recommendations were given wide publicity, and would then come into force when proclaimed before the holding of more than 3,000 copies of our report have been circulated the next general election. throughout the province. We feel that on the second round of Population rules. Population means the most recent populations hearings we need only listen to your reactions, evaluate your set out in the most recent decennial census of the population of comments and critiques, and move on to our final conclusion with Alberta as provided by Statistics Canada. We are also required to respect to our mandate. add the population of Indian reserves that were not included in the I want to assure you that every member of the commission has census as provided by the federal department of Indian and northern reviewed the law and the literature which has been recently written affairs. But if the commission believes there is another concerning electoral boundaries in Alberta. I want to tell you that provincewide census more recent than the decennial census we have reached preliminary conclusions with respect to our compiled by Statistics Canada which provides the population for the mandate, but I also want to tell you that our minds are not closed, proposed electoral divisions, then the commission may use this data. nor have we reached any final conclusion. Every member of this Number of electoral divisions. The second rule is that the commission has given these matters a lot of thought, and in commission is required to divide Alberta into 83 proposed electoral reviewing the law, the work of previous commissions and divisions. The commission may take into consideration any factors committees which have studied boundaries in Alberta and in it considers appropriate, but it must and shall take into consideration reviewing what the courts have said about electoral boundaries in the the following. province of Alberta and in Canada, we've attempted to craft a Relevant considerations: one, the requirement for effective preliminary proposal that will assure that all of the citizens of representation as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Alberta and all of the regions of Alberta are adequately represented Freedoms; two, sparsity and density of population; three, common in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. community interests and community organizations including those In order to put our second round of hearings in perspective, I want of Indian reserves and Métis settlements; four, whenever possible to present a brief summary of the electoral boundaries law. One, our existing community boundaries within the cities of Edmonton and function is to review the existing electoral boundaries and to make Calgary; five, the existing municipal boundaries; six, the number of proposals to the Legislative Assembly about the area, the municipalities and other local authorities; seven, geographical boundaries, and the names of the electoral divisions in Alberta. features including existing road systems; eight, the desirability of Two, we have a very limited time to accomplish this task. We understandable and clear boundaries. submitted a report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in late Population of electoral divisions. The population rule is that a January and must now, after a second round of public hearings, proposed electoral division must not be more than 25 percent above 506 Electoral Boundaries Commission Public Hearings April 18, 1996 or below the average population for all 83 electoral divisions. There gentlemen of the commission. Thank you again for allowing me to is an exception to the 25 percent rule. In the case of not more than make my submission to the boundaries commission. I represent the four proposed electoral divisions the commission may have a Progressive Conservative Constituency Association of Pincher population that is as much as 50 percent below the average Creek-Macleod as director of communications. I'm impressed with population of the electoral divisions in Alberta if three of the the amount of work the commission has done in preparing the report following five criteria are met: one, the area exceeds 20,000 square to the Speaker dated January 1996. kilometres or the surveyed area of the proposed electoral division However, the first message the constituency association wishes exceeds 15,000 square kilometres; two, the distance from the me to convey to you is that you have not listened to our pleas to not Legislature Building in Edmonton to the nearest boundary of any expand the boundary of the constituency of Pincher Creek-Macleod. proposed electoral division by the most direct highway route is more Your report does show the vastly greater workload placed on our than 150 kilometres; three, there is no town in the proposed electoral MLA than the workload placed on an urban MLA. Your matrix division that has a population exceeding 4,000 people; four, the area weights the degree of difficulty, or rather lack of difficulty, in of the proposed electoral division contains an Indian reserve or a representing Edmonton-Roper at 18 out of a possible 100. The Métis settlement; five, the proposed electoral division has a portion Pincher Creek-Macleod constituency you have rated at a difficulty of its boundary coterminous with a boundary of the province of level of 52, which is not far below the most difficult constituency, Alberta. Athabasca-Wabasca, at 68. Crowsnest Pass. For our purposes the boundaries Act instructs us Our level of difficulty will only increase if your recommendations that the municipality of Crowsnest Pass is not a town. are followed, further increasing the inequity of your matrix picture. This is a very general overview of the legislation, but we must While I congratulate you on developing an easily understandable also turn to the guidance that has been provided by the Supreme table that reflects the difficulty of representing the various 83 Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Alberta. The constituencies, you haven't finished your job. If you fail to give commission wishes to note that many persons may not agree with ideas or recommendations to address this obvious inequity among our interpretation of these decisions.

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