Could Airdrie and Cochrane serve as one riding in 2019?

That was one of the recommendations brought forward by the Electoral Boundaries Commission yesterday afternoon (May 25th).

The Commission which started last October, gathered information and feedback from an online survey and public hearings to determine what, if any changes need to be made to Alberta's Electoral districts before the 2019 Election.

Airdrie and the surrounding areas could see some of the biggest changes, due in part to the rapid growth of the city.

"Northwest of the city, which would compose of the west part of the City of Airdrie and the entire Town of Cochrane, including the land in between and that would be (the) constituency called Airdrie-Cochrane," says Justice Myra Bielby, Chair of the Commission.

The recommended split would mean that areas east of 8th street would remain as the Airdrie district, while the remainder of the city and parts of Rocky View County would merge with Cochrane.

The current riding of Banff-Cochrane would consolidate with the Stoney Nakoda area to become Banff-Stoney, while Chestermere would break apart from most of Rocky View County to form it's own constituency.

These results are just the first set of recommendations from the commission, and they're opening the door for feedback on these possible changes on the week of July 17.

The commission noted that these possible new ridings would create concerns as it not only divides Airdrie but would mean one MLA would serve a large area between Airdrie and Cochrane in that district.

At the end of the day, the commission found that many rural ridings would need to consolidate with suburban areas due to declining population in those regions, something that Bielby says is tough to work with.

"The reality in a democracy where you've got representation by population...the people that live in the areas with less population growth or no population growth are going to see a change."

Currently, the report states that the number of total electoral boundaries would stay at the current 87 by the next election in 2019.

Once the next round of feedback is collected this July, the commission will create another report and hope to make final recommendations to the Legislature in October.

For more on the commission and the Interim Report, you can visit their official website.

 

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