Alberta’s electoral districts began the process of being divided up once again in Edmonton on Monday.
The province’s population has grown by over 20 per cent over the past eight years, triggering the need to “review our provincial constituency boundaries prior to the next provincial election,” according to the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission (AEBC).
Most of the population growth has happened in urban areas.
“It’s extremely difficult to service a super urban riding,” Duncan Kinney, executive director of Progress Alberta, said. “there’s lots of income-support issues, there’s lots of human services issues, frankly a lot of poverty tends to agglomerate in these downtown urban areas and that means more work for urban MLAs.”
“It’s very important that the MLA talk to the individual people within the riding to express themselves to the MLA and let them know their thoughts and feelings and that’s just darn challenging if the area’s really big,” David Dorward, a former Progressive Conservative MLA, said.
Some Albertans won’t be voting in the same constituency they voted in for the May 2015 election when the boundaries change.
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Legislative rules dictate political boundaries need to be redrawn every eight to 10 years in Alberta.
The AEBC is now tasked with reviewing the existing boundaries and names for Alberta’s 87 electoral constituencies. Once the review is complete, the commission will report to the Legislative Assembly by Oct. 31, 2017.
Before submitting a report to MLA, the commission will take into account a number of factors in its review, such as population densities within certain areas, shared community interests, geographical features including road systems and the need for effective representation as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Monday’s public hearings in Edmonton took place at the Ramada Edmonton Hotel and Convention Centre and continue Tuesday. The deadline for participants to register was last week. The commission will then travel to various parts of the province to hear from Albertans before public hearings wrap up in Westlock on Feb. 24.
A second round of public consultations is set to get underway after the commission releases its interim report which is due by May 31.
Albertans can also weigh in on the process by providing written submissions or through social media by using the hashtag #AlbertaEBC.
-With files from Tom Vernon.