Kenora-Rainy River riding axed

Ken Johnston

After decades of being joined at the hip with Kenora, the west Rainy River District will soon be paired up with Thunder Bay if the proposed new electoral boundaries are adopted.
In legislation tabled last Wednesday, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (FEBC) removed the Rainy River District from the Kenora-Rainy River Riding and added it to the Thunder Bay riding to form the Thunder Bay-Rainy River Riding.
Andrew Sancton, Deputy Chair of the Ontario Commission of the FEBC said Monday that the main reason was the population of the region. “By removing Rainy River District from the Kenora-Rainy River Riding their population would drop to 43% below the provincial quotient.”
The quotient is the lowest figure that the government recommends for a riding. However, by adding the RR District to Thunder Bay all the other ridings in the region were under the 25% below quotient guideline for ridings. “It enabled us to do a great deal of problem solving in the region,” said Sancton.
The new Thunder-Bay Rainy River Riding will run from Rainy River to the city of Thunder Bay and will encompass everything south of the Harbour Expressway in the city.
Kenora-Rainy River Member of Parliament Bob Nault expressed shock and awe over the decision to remove Rainy River. He had anticipated Atikokan being added to his riding, not the removal of the entire district.
Sancton said that at the public hearings about the initial proposals were held in Thunder Bay for this region. He noted that the mayor of Atikokan was present and that he, “Did not like the proposal to link Atikokan with Kenora-Rainy River.”
Previously Atikokan was linked with Thunder Bay which split the Rainy River District up. Hence the FEBC opted to link the entire RR Dist. with Thunder Bay.
Traditionally the west Rainy River District has had strong ties with the Kenora District. Sancton said that they did hear that. “No one is pretending these are ideal recommendations. We had to consider the over all balance of the province.”
People with concerns should contact Bob Nault’s office as soon as possible as there is a 30 day window for MPs to final an appeal. The case will be made to a house of commons standing committee who will then decide if any changes should be recommended to the FEBC. They will then have another 30 days to decide if they should make any changes.
Sancton, who sat on the last FEBC 10 years ago, said that they did make a lot of changes then, after the appeals process was heard.