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Report says Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House should form a new constituency

May 27, 2017 | 5:43 PM

Voters may be part of a completely new constituency come the next provincial election, with the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission recommending Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House’s riding boundaries be changed. 

In its interim report released on Thursday, the commission recommends that three new ridings be made, one in Edmonton, one in Calgary and one northwest of Calgary. In order to keep the same number of constituencies the commission is consolidating some ridings in areas with below average population growth compared to the provincial average.

The ridings of Drayton Valley-Devon and Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre are identified by commission for possible consolidation. A new “Drayton Valley – Rocky Mountain House” riding is proposed.

Wildrose MLA for Drayton Valley-Devon Mark Smith says he supports the changes as long as they are in the best interest for his constituents.

“At the end of the day, everyone deserves to have an equal vote. If that means joining Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House together, that’s a good thing.”

Wildrose MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre Jason Nixon says it’s exciting to see his riding stay together.

“It’s not some of the other constituencies that have been split in twos or threes so I’m happy to see that our constituency is staying in tact, but we also have to make sure that it doesn’t become so big that it’s hard to effectively represent in the legislature.”

Smith acknowledged that with how large the proposed constituency would become it would be a handful for that MLA.

“It will make it hard for whoever is the MLA to develop knowledge and a relationship with constituents in their riding.” He added “You could make the argument that putting Drayton Valley in creates a constituency so large, it’ll make it hard for the MLA to represent it effectively.”

Concerns that Nixon says he has with the merge is that the new riding would be about 17 per cent over the provincial average for population.

“It would be one of the biggest landmass ridings in the province” he added “The concern is that the devaluing of the rural vote is for that much above the average population.”

Over the summer Smith says he will be talking with caucus and taking a look at the overall picture of the possible changes, something he says many MLA’s will be doing.

“Every MLA is going to have to sit down and figure out if they even want to run again. It’s always difficult when something like this happens, especially when two MLA’s in the same party are groups together.”

The last boundaries review was in 2010, which resulted in four new ridings being created.

Citizens can take part in the current process by giving feedback on the report recommendations, with the Commission accepting written submissions until July 8. Public hearings will be held during the third week of July.

The government is scheduled to receive the commission’s final report by the end of October.