It's deadline day for communities, MLAs to file final objections to election map

Members of the provincial legislature had until the end of Monday to endorse any final objections to a proposed new provincial election map.

The map, released two weeks ago by an independent electoral boundaries commission, will go into effect in 30 days with or without any last-minute changes based on the objections.

Progressive Conservative, Liberal and Green MLAs all signed objections over the last few days, though the commission wouldn't provide a list.

"The commission will not be providing the media with the names of the individuals, groups or organization who file an objection to the final report," said spokesperson Paul Harpelle.

Harpelle pointed out that the last commission, in 2013, didn't identify who filed objections. The law doesn't require or prohibit the release of information on who submitted objections or which riding maps they were objecting to.

He said eight objections were filed as of 5:30 p.m. Monday, though the commission would accept others until midnight.

MLAs not confident objections will be heard

Southwest Miramichi-Bay du Vin PC MLA Mike Dawson confirmed he and colleague Michelle Conroy endorsed an objection by residents of Escuminac, Baie Sainte-Anne and Hardwicke who don't want to be moved into the riding of Kent North.

Dawson said the members of the commission ignored that sentiment in its final report so he was not optimistic they would listen now.

"I'd like to think they're going to look at it and do what's best for the voters and taxpayers," he said.

"Do I think they will? … If 600 or 800 letters aren't enough, my letter from me and Michelle, I can't see it being enough either."

Provincial law requires that the 49 electoral ridings be redrawn every 10 years to ensure they have a roughly equal number of voters after shifts in population.

After two rounds of public consultations and an initial map proposal, the commission issued a final report March 13.

Once that report is published, objections can be submitted for two weeks, but only if they're co-signed by at least two elected members of the legislature.

Kent South Liberal MLA Benoit Bourque said he and colleague Robert Gauvin co-signed a submission from the new municipality of Champdoré, which wants the new riding of the same name to be "exclusively or mostly" in Kent County. It now includes part of Moncton.

Like Dawson, he's not sure the commission will listen.

"It's tough for me to speculate on where they're going to go," he said.

Black River-Hardwicke wants to stay with Miramichi

Lynn Gregan, the former chair of the Black River-Hardwicke local service district, said people in his community near Miramichi feel more attachment to the city — where they tend to work, shop and do business — than to the northern part of Kent County.

"The objection, first of all, was dividing the community of Hardwicke in two," he said.

But he said many people from Escuminac and Baie Sainte-Anne are also opposed to being in Kent North, estimating 60 per cent of voters in the three communities signed a petition against it earlier this year.

"They're flabbergasted," said Gregan, who now chairs the new Greater Miramichi rural district created by local government reform.

Gregan lives in what will be the Miramichi East provincial riding, while his neighbours in the community will be in the Kent North riding.

The commission said in its final report that it put the area in Kent North because they are part of the new Kent rural district created by local government reform, and it makes sense for them to share the same MLA.

Dawson says that should not supersede local wishes.

"The people of the area would know better than the people on the commission, and if the people of the area say they don't want to be in a certain area because their interests don't align with Kent North, then why are they doing it?"

David Coon objects to splitting of his riding

Green Leader David Coon and party MLA Kevin Arseneau signed an objection to the splitting of Coon's current Fredericton South riding into two new city ridings.

And Memramcook-Tantramar Green MLA Megan Mitton joined Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé Liberal MLA Jacques LeBlanc to sign an objection to part of the new municipality of Cap-Acadie becoming part of a new Tantramar riding.

That objection is unlikely to go anywhere because the commission has already said that if the section of Cap-Acadie were removed, the Tantramar riding would be below the minimum number of voters allowed by provincial law.

Besides LeBlanc, five other Liberals have filed objections or are supporting objections from their ridings. Three of those are about riding boundaries and two are about riding names.

Among Progressive Conservative MLAs, at least two are objecting to riding changes affecting Oromocto and one, cabinet minister Daniel Allain, is objecting to changes to his Moncton East riding, according to a spokesperson. LeBlanc co-signed Allain's objection.

In the last electoral riding redrawing in 2013, the commission rejected 20 of the 23 final objections.

It accepted two in full, including one that changed boundaries and one that only changed a riding's name. And it partly accepted another recommendation dealing with a name change.