And then there were three?
Last fall, the BC Electoral Boundaries Commission published its preliminary report with recommendations for changing British Columbia’s provincial electoral districts for the next two provincial general elections. It proposed that New West voters be divvied up into five provincial ridings.
The commission has now published its final report with recommendations to the Legislative Assembly for changing British Columbia’s provincial electoral districts in response to population growth. Instead of five, it’s now proposing that New Westminster resident be included in three provincial ridings: Richmond Queensborough, Burnaby-New Westminster and New Westminster-Coquitlam.
“We believe that this allows for expected growth, keeps the urban core of New Westminster intact, and avoids splitting the community into too many electoral districts, which would reduce effective representation,” said the report. “In light of our principle of balancing populations in neighbouring areas, we move Coquitlam’s Cariboo neighbourhood into New Westminster-Coquitlam.”
Currently, residents are in two provincial ridings – Richmond Queensborough, which includes all of Queensborough, and New Westminster-Burnaby, which includes all of the city’s mainland.
Queensborough residents will continue to be part of the Richmond-Queensborough provincial riding.
“People expressed different opinions about whether the New Westminster neighbourhood of Queensborough, which was moved into Richmond-Delta in the 2015 electoral boundary adjustment, should remain in a Richmond riding or return to New Westminster,” said the commission’s report. “We propose keeping it where it is because moving it would neither improve effective representation nor better balance electoral district populations.”
Burnaby-New Westminster: This electoral district includes the New Westminster neighbourhoods of Kelvin, Eastburn, Connaught Heights and the adjacent Burnaby neighbourhoods of Middlegate and Edmonds. Its boundaries follow Imperial Street in the north, Griffiths Drive in the west, Sixth Avenue in the south, and McBride Boulevard, Cumberland Street and Newcombe Street in the east.
New Westminster-Coquitlam: This riding consists of downtown New Westminster south and east of Sixth and Tenth Avenues. It includes the neighbourhoods of Queen’s Park, Sapperton and Brunette Creek, as well as the southwestern part of the Coquitlam neighbourhood of Cariboo. Its boundaries run along Austin Avenue and Blue Mountain Street in the north and east, and they follow the Fraser River to the south and west.
The commission’s recommendations include a proposal to create six additional electoral districts in areas of rapid population growth, bringing the total number of provincial ridings to 93 from the current 87.
“Our proposal to increase the number of electoral districts reflects our growing province,” said Justice Nitya Iyer, chair of the Commission. “We do not recommend reducing the number of ridings in more sparsely populated areas of the province because doing so would undermine effective representation.”
In a press release, the commission said it was recommending adjustments to the boundaries of 72 electoral districts and changes to 41 electoral district names based on the geographic, demographic, and communication and transportation considerations set out in the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act.
The publication of the final report marks the end of the Commission’s process. It is now the responsibility of the Legislative Assembly to decide whether to accept all, some or none of the Commission’s recommendations.
The preliminary proposal, released in October 2022, would have seen New West residents voting in five provincial ridings: Burnaby East, Burnaby-New Westminster, Burnaby South, New Westminster-Maillardville, and Richmond-Queensborough.
In November, five people made presentations to the commission when it held a hearing in New Westminster, including then-mayor-elect Patrick Johnstone, school trustee Maya Russell, the City of New Westminster intergovernmental and community relations manager and a local resident. All four expressed concerns about the plan to divide New Westminster residents into five ridings, including a proposal that would have seen the Connaught Heights neighbourhood become of a Burnaby riding.
📢 SOUND OFF: What do you think of the new provincial riding boundaries? Share your thoughts — send us a letter.
