from OTTAWA Rapport d’Ottawa

by/par Carol Hughes Federal member of Parliament Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing

Late last week, the final report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario was released. While there was some significant changes from the redistribution proposal that was released late last summer, with feedback taken from the great work of municipal leaders, First Nations, and concerned citizens to help shape the electoral map, the core issues with redistributionremainedfortheNorth.Namely,the numberofelectoraldistrictsisbeingreduced,from tentonine;ruralcommunitiesarebeinglumpedin with larger centres; and a reduced voice in Parliament. Any way you slice it, the report does notfavourNorthernOntario.

While electoral districts across the north havebeenredistributed,theclearoutlierintermsof how things are changing is Algoma-ManitoulinKapuskasing. With the Commission's final proposal,theelectoraldistrictofAlgoma-ManitoulinKapuskasingwillbecompletelyerased.Thosewho live within the riding currently would be represented in new ridings with much larger centres.