On May 10 (next Tuesday) Peace River residents will get the chance to have their say on how they are represented in Victoria.
The BC Electoral Boundaries Commission is coming to town to hear what you have to say on changes that could be coming for the local electoral district – what kind of area the next MLA will represent. This is a critical issue for us in the Peace and all of us in rural B.C. because there is a distinct chance that the process will end with fewer MLA representing the rural citizens of B.C.
We could see the entire Peace Region combined to create a new mega riding where a single MLA would represent everyone living in Northeast B.C.—from Alberta to the Rocky Mountains, and from Jasper to the Yukon. That’s an area almost the size of the entire African nation of Senegal, 1.5 times the size of Greece, or twice the size of South Korea. It is one-fifth of the entire province—and it could be represented by a single MLA.
The argument often offered from urban B.C. is that each MLA should represent the same number of people. But that ignores the fact that in Vancouver or Surrey or Abbotsford it’s a matter of minutes to get to see anyone living in the electoral district, while in the potential massive Peace River riding it would take almost a day to get from one side of the riding to the other (weather permitting). A Vancouver MLA could drive from downtown to Prince George in the same amount of time.
As MLAs, we often work closely with our municipal counterparts. We meet on a regular basis, and we are always chatting about issues that need to be taken to Victoria. Right now, the MLA in each riding deals with four municipal councils on their issues. Down in Vancouver the council deals with 11 MLAs, and in Surrey it is 8 MLAs. That’s a whole different type of representation.
These are just some of the reasons why the last government protected rural representation when boundaries were redrawn back in 2015. One wonders why that protection has been tossed aside by the current government.
The issue is bigger than any individual MLA or riding – it impacts all of rural B.C. There is the potential for Northern B.C. to go from eight seats down to four or five. That means fewer rural voices to be heard in the debate in Victoria. We already know the difficulty of having our concerns respected and heard, whether it is mountain caribou, LNG development, or rural health care. It will only get worse.
Rural B.C. has also been the defenders of the resource industries that fuel the province – and the prosperity of urban B.C. Whether it is agriculture, oil and gas, forestry, mining, or fisheries, rural B.C. drives so much of the revenues that benefits the rest of the province. There will be fewer voices to defend those sectors and the family-supporting jobs they bring to so many of us.
You now have your chance to share your thoughts in person on how you want to be represented in Victoria – and what shape you want the rural representation to take. If we don’t want our access and rights taken away, we need to speak out. The BC Electoral Boundaries Commission will be in Dawson Creek at the George Dawson Inn at 11705 8th St from 8:30 am on to hear from local residents. Please consider going to info@bcebc.ca and registering to have your voice heard and I hope to see a huge turnout to show them we do not support any changes. We want things to stay the way they are at the very least.
I encourage you to get out and share your thoughts on the type of representation you want for rural B.C. and the Peace.
