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VICTORIA – Government
will preserve the existing number of members of the legislative assembly (MLAs)
from rural areas of the province, while permitting the BC Electoral Boundaries
Commission to add MLAs in areas experiencing population growth.
Bill 39, the
Electoral Boundaries Commission Amendment Act, 2007, introduced today,
instructs the commission to recommend 87 electoral districts, up from the
current 79. It follows on a commitment by Premier Gordon Campbell this
September to provide new instructions and legal tools to the Electoral
Boundaries Commission to ensure voters in all regions have effective
representation in the legislative assembly.
The proposed amendments
direct the commission to retain the current number of electoral districts in
three regions. The north will keep eight MLAs, the Cariboo-Thompson five MLAs
and the Columbia-Kootenay four MLAs. The commission will be given an additional
eight seats to allocate elsewhere in the province. This increase gives the
commission the ability to better achieve parity of voting power and effective
representation, without significantly increasing the size of the legislative
assembly.
The report will be prepared
in advance of the scheduled 2009 general election and referendum on electoral
reform and contain proposed electoral boundaries for the current voting system,
known as the single member plurality (SMP) system, and the single transferable
vote (STV) system. The new legislation will apply to both voting systems.
The
commission will have until Jan. 31, 2008 to release a revised preliminary
report on the new boundaries, with the final report due by April 15, 2008. This
will allow time for the report to be introduced into the legislature during the
spring session for debate and vote. If passed, the new map would be in place in
time for the 2009 provincial general election.
The Electoral Boundaries
Commission Act requires that a new commission be appointed within one year
after every second provincial election. The commission reviews electoral
boundaries and makes recommendations to the legislative assembly, taking into
account population, geography, history and community interests.
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Premier Campbell’s letter to Speaker Bill Barisoff,
outlining government’s intentions to introduce legislative amendments to the
Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, is available online at: www.mediaroom.gov.bc.ca/DisplayEventDetails.aspx?eventId=391
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contact: |
Public Affairs Officer Ministry of Attorney General 250 387-4962 |
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