Leave electoral boundaries alone

This week I would like to share my submission to Federal Electoral Boundary Commission for Ontario regarding their redistribution proposal between Thunder Bay – Rainy River and Kenora.
For those who have not heard, the Commission has made a proposal as follows: “The Commission proposes that the electoral district of Thunder Bay—Rainy River be comprised of the current electoral district, less the Township of Lake of the Woods, which has been added to the proposed electoral district of Kenora.” I am opposed to these changes, and for those who are interested my reasons are outlined below.
For more information on the process and proposed changes, please visit the Commission’s website at: http://www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca/
Greetings.
Please consider this message as a written request to address the Ontario Electoral Boundary Committee on October 10, 2012 regarding the proposed the changes to the boundary changes between the ridings of Thunder Bay – Rainy River and Kenora. I wish to speak on behalf of the affected constituents in Thunder Bay – Rainy River whom the commission has proposed moving into the Kenora riding. While conceding that the Commission’s rationale for this particular proposal, namely that the “community of interest is more closely tied to Kenora than to Thunder Bay,” is on its face true there are also other considerations that I believe should take precedence over this consideration.
One specific concern that I have is the reduced accessibility that the affected constituents will have to their Member of Parliament and his/her constituency services should the proposed changes be implemented. This concern is the result of the increased travel that will be required by the affected constituents in order to receive the same level of in-person services from their new Member of Parliament. Presently, an average affected constituent (say from Bergland Ontario) must travel approximately 107 kilometres (214 kilometres return trip) to receive in-person service in my Fort Frances office. However, under the proposed boundary changes these same constituents will be required to travel 206 kilometres (412kilometres return trip) in order to receive the same service from their new Member of Parliament whose constituency office is located in Kenora. What is currently an inconvenient 3 hour and 20 minute return trip by car will turn into a very long and impractical 6 hour and 45 minute day trip, which in some cases may require overnight accommodations in order to receive the same level of in-person service in their new constituency as in their current constituency. The distance is even greater for constituents living in Morson and Big Grassy First Nation, and in other proposed areas. For your information I have attached two maps, one for each return trip from Bergland as described above.
While realizing that many constituents in ridings throughout Canada, and in the Kenora riding in particular, have much farther to travel to receive the same level of service from their federal representative, whenever such travel is even an option, I nonetheless oppose the proposed boundary changes between the Thunder Bay – Rainy and Kenora ridings because of the significant degradation in the accessibility to the services that could be provided by their proposed Member of Parliament should this proposal become a reality.
Another factor that I would urge the Commission to take into consideration is rooted in the rationale for the proposed boundary change in this particular instance. In as much that the Commission concluded that the proposed changes would be in the interest of the affected constituents because “their community of interest is more closely tied to Kenora than to Thunder Bay,” it must also be said that the affected constituents in fact hold a stronger tie to the Rainy River District than either Thunder Bar and Kenora. This assertion is supported by the fact that the Rainy River District (including Fort Frances, Atikokan, and Lake of the Woods Township, and all affected areas) are presently part of the same Census Division, the Rainy River District, while Kenora and Thunder Bay are part their own separate divisions. Given the very close geographic presence of the affected constituents to the Rainy River District, they are more likely to have shared culture, traditions, and common interests with the residents of the towns of Fort Frances and Rainy River, and townships of Atikokan, Morley, Chapple, and Emo than with the people of Kenora or Thunder Bay.
I would like to also take this opportunity to inform the Commission that I have spoken personally to my elected colleague and neighbour, the Member of Parliament for Kenora, and we are in agreement that the current boundaries should not be changed in order to ensure that the affected constituents have enjoy the greatest accessibility and receive the highest level of service as possible from their federally elected representative.
In closing, I would like to thank the Commission for their work and welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue in person with the Commission in Thunder Bay on October 10th, 2012.

Sincerely,

John Rafferty, MP.