H. the Tri-Cities Area

PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES 9 H. The Tri-Cities Area The geographical area that we describe as the Tri-Cities region is bounded by Indian Arm on the northwest, Burnaby 9 – PART PRO and New Westminster on the southwest, the Fraser River on the south and the Pitt River on the east. It includes three cities – Port Moody, Coquitlam P OSED and Port Coquitlam – as well as the Villages of Anmore and Belcarra. S INGLE ME 1. Evolution of the Tri-Cities electoral districts Immediately prior to the 1966 Angus M BER PLURALITY Commission, there was one single- member electoral district (Dewdney) extending from Indian Arm east to Hope, on the north side of the Fraser River (see Tri-Cities, Map 1). B OUNDARIES Tri-Cities, Map 1 181 9 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES a. Angus Commission (1966) The Angus Commission recommended that Dewdney be split into two single- member districts (see Tri-Cities, Map P ART 2). The western portion, extending from Indian Arm and the eastern 9 – PRO boundaries of the Burnaby and New Westminster electoral districts eastward P OSED to the Pitt River, would be named Co- quitlam, encompassing all the area we S now refer to as Tri-Cities. INGLE ME The Legislative Assembly adopted the Angus Commission’s recom- M mendations. BER PLURALITY B OUNDARIES Tri-Cities, Map 2 182 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES 9 b. The Norris Commission (1975) Due to population growth and under- representation in the legislature, the Norris Commission recommended (Tri-Cities, Map 3) that the boundaries 9 – PART PRO of the Coquitlam electoral district re- main unchanged, but it should become a dual-member district. P OSED The Legislative Assembly did not adopt the Norris Commission’s recom- S mendations. INGLE ME M BER PLURALITY B OUNDARIES Tri-Cities, Map 3 183 9 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES c. The Eckardt Commission (1978) Judge Eckardt recommended (see Tri-Cities, Map 4) that the Coquitlam electoral district be divided into two P ART single-member districts: • Maillardville-Coquitlam would be a 9 – PRO comparatively small district, extending from the Burnaby district P OSED boundary east to Essondale and from the southern boundary of Port S Moody south to the Fraser River. INGLE ME • Coquitlam-Moody would consist of the municipalities of Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and the remainder M of Coquitlam. BER PLURALITY The Legislative Assembly adopted Judge Eckardt’s recommendations. d. The Warren Commission (1982) B OUNDARIES None of Mr. Warren’s recommendations affected these electoral districts. e. The McAdam Commission (1984) None of the McAdam Commission’s recommendations affected these electoral districts. Tri-Cities, Map 4 184 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES 9 f. The Fisher Commission (1988) Judge Fisher recommended (see Tri- Cities, Map 5) that the number of districts be increased from two to three: • Port Moody–Burnaby Mountain 9 – PART PRO would be bounded on the west by Indian Arm and Duthie Road in Burnaby, on the south by Smith Avenue and Como Lake Avenue, P OSED and on the east by the Coquit- lam district municipality’s western S boundary. INGLE ME • Port Coquitlam would extend from the Coquitlam district municipality’s western boundary eastward to the M BER PLURALITY Pitt River. • Coquitlam-Maillardville would be approximately the same as the exist- ing Maillardville-Coquitlam district. B The Legislative Assembly adopted OUNDARIES Judge Fisher’s recommendations. g. The Wood Commission (1999) In its interim report, the Wood Com- mission noted that the population of the electoral district of Port Coquitlam had grown by 91 percent in the pre- ceding decade, requiring significant Tri-Cities, Map 5 185 9 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES redrawing of electoral boundaries in the Tri-Cities area (Tri-Cities, Map 6): • Port Moody–Burnaby Mountain – the commission accepted that there P ART was a community of interest among the people residing in the moun- 9 – PRO tain area on the north shore of Port Moody in Belcarra, Anmore and P OSED Heritage Mountain, and in the Eagle Ridge and Westwood Plateau areas S of Coquitlam where there had been INGLE ME significant new development. It proposed extending the eastern boundary farther east into Coquitlam (to M the Coquitlam River) and moving BER PLURALITY the southern boundary farther north to the southern municipal boundary of Port Moody, and re-naming the district Port Moody–Westwood. • Coquitlam-Maillardville – this B OUNDARIES district would be bounded on the north by the proposed new Port Moody–Westwood district, on the west by the proposed new Burquit- lam district, on the south by the Fraser River and on the east by the Coquitlam municipal border. • Port Coquitlam – this district (which the commission proposed be named Port Coquitlam–Burke Mountain) combined parts of the cities of Tri-Cities, Map 6 Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. The commission heard no significant objection to this arrangement, and 186 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES 9 recommended that the electoral • The City of Coquitlam expressed • It was suggested that the western district be preserved in large part, dissatisfaction with the degree to boundary of Coquitlam-Maillardville except that the Coquitlam River be which Coquitlam shared electoral should run straight along Blue used as part of the western boundary. districts with adjacent municipalities. Mountain Street, but the commis- • Burquitlam – the increase in popu- It provided the commission with two sion concluded that including an 9 – PART PRO lation also necessitated an elec- alternative maps – with three and additional 3,100 people from the toral district that included parts of four electoral districts in the Tri- Burquitlam electoral district in this Burnaby and Coquitlam, extending Cities area, respectively. Although the district would produce too high a eastward to Blue Mountain Street city accepted the necessity of electoral deviation. P OSED and Gatensbury Street. districts shared with Port Coquitlam, • The western boundary of the Port Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra, Coquitlam–Burke Mountain elec- S The commission was satisfied that these it urged the commission to avoid toral district followed the Coquit- INGLE ME changes would allow for the continued creating an electoral district shared lam River, except for one triangular population growth expected due to between Coquitlam and Burnaby. section west of the river, which some development in the Town Centre and The Wood Commission concluded people suggested should become M BER PLURALITY northeast areas of Coquitlam. Although that adopting the City of Coquit- part of Coquitlam-Maillardville. the City of Coquitlam requested lam’s proposals for three or four elec- However, this boundary followed the electoral districts wholly within its toral districts in the Tri-Cities area Port Coquitlam municipal bound- municipal boundaries, the fact that would produce deviations that were ary, and the commission decided that Coquitlam’s high population was locat- too high. The three-district proposal those residents of Port Coquitlam B ed adjacent to the smaller communities would have two electoral districts in west of the river should most OUNDARIES of Port Moody and Port Coquitlam led excess of plus 20 percent, and the logically be included in an electoral the commission to conclude that some four-district proposal would have one district with other residents of Port overlap of the municipal boundaries was electoral district at plus 26 percent. Coquitlam. necessary in order to create electoral • Residents of Coquitlam-Maillardville districts with appropriate populations. living between Guildford Way and The Legislative Assembly adopted the Barnet Highway felt that they all the Wood Commission’s recom- In its final report, the commission con- should be included in Port Moody– mendations. sidered, but ultimately rejected, several Westwood, as the Barnet Highway proposed changes: would leave them somewhat isolated from Coquitlam-Maillardville. How- ever, the commission concluded that including these 4,000 people would produce too high a positive deviation in Port Moody–Westwood, where continued high growth was expected. 187 9 PART 9 – PROPOSED SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY BOUNDARIES 2. Our analysis of the Tri-Cities electoral districts The geographical area that we describe electoral districts yields an average Coquitlam Town Centre area and in P ART as the Tri-Cities region now has three deviation of minus 5.3 percent (based the city’s southwest quadrant. electoral districts, plus approximately on 79 electoral districts), quite appro- 9 – PRO 42 percent of the Burquitlam electoral priate for such a fast-growing urban As mentioned earlier, in urban areas, we district (see map on page 190). These area. Consequently, we are satisfied that attempted to design electoral districts P OSED electoral districts, with their deviations the Tri-Cities region should have four that correspond to municipal bound- at the time of the 1996 census, and electoral districts. aries where possible, because in our S now, are as follows (see Table 17): view municipalities are good indicators INGLE ME In deciding how to configure electoral of long-standing community interests. TABLE 17: CURRENT SMP ELECTORAL districts within this region, we began DISTRICTS IN THE TRI-CITIES with examining the physical configura- The current Port Moody–Westwood M Electoral 1996 2006 tion of the five municipalities

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