Residents in Red Deer and Mountain View counties will be voting according to new constituency boundaries in the next federal election after the Electoral Boundaries Commission for Alberta submitted its report to the House of Commons in early December.
Red Deer Conservative MP Earl Dreeshen said that the Red Deer region is going to be split into two electoral ridings.
The Red Deer ñ Mountain View riding will be made up of the southern part of Red Deer and Red Deer County, using primarily Ross Street and Highway 11 as the boundary line, he said.
This riding will also include Mountain View County, including Olds, Sundre, Didsbury and Carstairs, he added.
"The reason it's called Red Deer - Mountain View is of course because the entire County of Mountain View was said to be included, in order to make up the 107,000 (required) people that would be in the area,î said Dreeshen.
The Red Deer - Wolf Creek riding will be made up of the northern portion of Red Deer and Red Deer County, including Sylvan Lake, Lacombe County, and parts of Ponoka County.
The Louis Bull, Ermineskin, Samson, and Montana Indian Reserves will also be included in that riding, he noted.
During a consultation with residents, Dreeshen and his team found that the residents of the eastern portion of Red Deer County wanted to remain in the Red Deer ñ Mountain View riding, he said.
"The eastern portion of Red Deer County containing the communities of Delburne, Elnora and Lousana will not be part of Battle River - Crowfoot as originally proposed,î he said.
"Rather, they will be included in the electoral district of Red Deer - Mountain View using the existing county boundaries.î
One of the positive aspects of the new boundary scheme, is that Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) will share the same boundaries as the Red Deer ñ Mountain View constituency, he said.
"When you take a look at the county of Red Deer for example and the county of Mountain View, we have Chinook's Edge that has the exact same boundaries,î he said. "We also have the great work that's done between the Red Deer College and Olds College, a lot of synergy that's associated with those two.î
Many of the suggestions that the commission received from young people was that they were looking forward to the new boundary, in relation to the CESD, he noted.
The need for the changes arose after the completion of the 2011 census. Due to the population growth that Alberta has experienced since the 2001 census, the province was given six additional MPs, he said.
"The commission has done a tremendous job respecting the complexities and ever-changing realities of our region,î he said. "Regardless of which electoral riding central Albertans find themselves in, they can be assured that they will continue to receive the representation they deserve.î
Once the boundary commission was set up, it was tasked with looking at ways to accommodate the population in each riding, he said.
"So they presented a map in the summer and so that's when people were having input into the process,î he said.
Though the proposals have been submitted to the House of Commons already, Dreeshen noted that residents can still have input if they see any potential problems arising from the proposed boundaries.
"It's still open for debate,î he said. "If any people have any major concerns about boundary issues - that would be beyond basically minor tinkering with one side of the jurisdiction versus another side - or if they decided that they didn't think the new names they came up with would be a responsible name for their riding, those people could make a presentation in that regard.î
The new boundaries will not officially come into effect until the next federal election, at which point candidates will be running for the new constituencies, he said.
"I think that what people have to realize is these changes were taking place in all of the provinces,î he said. "The boundaries had to change because of the census, so even those provinces that didn't get more members still had to go through the same process as well, because it does try to keep representation by population as its main model.î
If residents would like to provide additional suggestions or voice their concerns, Dreeshen said they can contact his office by phone at 1-403- 347-7426, or by email at ([email protected]).
