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1998/99 Legislative Session: 3rd Session, 36th Parliament

FIRST READING

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

MR. WEISGERBER

BILL M 209 – 1998

ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES COMMISSION

AMENDMENT ACT, 1998

(NORTHERN ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES

PROTECTION ACT)

Determining boundaries

Section 9 of the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 107, is amended

by adding the following subsection:

(3) For the purposes of making proposals under

section 3 (2) and notwithstanding

subsections 9 (1) (

b) and (c), in the case of no more than 4 of the proposed

electoral districts, if the commission is of the opinion that all 3 of the following

criteria exist in a proposed electoral district, the proposed electoral district may

have a population that is as much as 50% below the common statistical Provincial

electoral quota of all the proposed electoral districts:

(

a) the area of the proposed electoral district exceeds 50,000 square kilometres;

(

b) the distance from the Parliament Buildings in Victoria to the nearest

boundary of the proposed electoral district by the most direct road route is

more than 800 kilometres; and,

(

c) the proposed electoral district has a portion of its boundary coterminous

with a boundary of the Province of British Columbia.

Explanatory Notes

This Bill protects the parliamentary representation of citizens living in northern British Columbia by ensuring that the commissions, when determining electoral boundaries, must permit up to a 50% population deviation if the proposed electoral district meets three criteria, as set out in the Bill, which recognize the unique geographic considerations of northern British Columbia.

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