OTTAWA – “By passing Bill C-20, our Conservative Government is keeping yet another promise we made during last year’s election,” states Leon Benoit, Member of Parliament for Vegreville-Wainwright. Benoit was referring to the successful vote at Third Reading in December.
“We made three distinct promises, which are outlined in our platform, concerning representation in the House of Commons,” explains Benoit. “We said that we would increase the number of seats now and in the future to better reflect population growth in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta; we would protect the number of seats for smaller provinces; and we would ensure the fair and proportional representation of Quebec according to population. This Bill does all those things.”
The increase in seats in the House of Commons is part of the Government’s promise to strengthen accountability and democracy for provinces such as Alberta. The faster growing provinces, such as Alberta and BC, have been increasingly disadvantaged in terms of their representation in Parliament. “We introduced legislation to deal with this twice over past sessions of Parliament but the Opposition blocked it,” says Benoit.
Under the Constitution, seats in the House of Commons are readjusted among the provinces after each decennial census according to a formula. This formula is based primarily on provincial population, but also incorporates minimum seat guarantees for provinces with relative declining populations. “This means that it would require a constitutional change to reduce seats in many provinces, which they would be extremely unlikely to agree to,” Benoit explains. “All we can really do is increase the number of seats in the three provinces which are significantly underrepresented.”
However, under this formula, provinces with faster-growing populations have become significantly under-represented in the House of Commons. For example, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Alberta or British Columbia represents an average of 10,000 more people than an MP in another province. The Fair Representation Act will move every single province towards representation by population. Under C-20, it is projected that, in the next readjustment process (following the release of the 2011 census):
- Ontario will receive an additional 15 seats (instead of 3)
- Alberta will receive an additional 6 seats (instead of 3)
- British Columbia will receive an additional 6 seats (instead of 1)
“Independent boundary commissions determine how and where electoral boundaries/seats are distributed within provinces,” says Benoit. “There will be opportunity for public consultation through the boundary commission process which should begin sometime next year. Each commission is chaired by a judge appointed by the chief justice of that province and then the Speaker of the House of Commons appoints two other members who are resident in that province. The commissions are independent bodies that make final decisions about the new federal electoral boundaries.”
“As a result of the Fair Representation Act, all three faster-growing provinces will move closer to representation by population,” states Benoit. “At the same time, we have maintained the seat count of slower-growing provinces and ensured that no province becomes underrepresented as a result of the legislation.”
More information on the process can be found at: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir/red/bck&document=index&lang=e
