Two former politicians will chair the electoral commission in New Brunswick

The Prime Minister Blaine Higgs announced the names of the six people who will make up the New Brunswick Electoral Boundaries Commission.

Two former politicians will lead the work

This commission will be co-chaired by two former politicians, former Liberal Prime Minister Camille Thériault and former Conservative federal MP Roger Clinch.

The other members of the commission are Josée Rioux-Walkermunicipal councilor in Drummond; Krista RossExecutive Director of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce; Emily Teedchief of staff to the managing partner of the regional office of Deloitte for the Atlantic region; and Université de Moncton political scientist Roger J. Ouellette.

All these appointments will come into effect on July 15.

The commission’s mandate is to redefine the boundaries of New Brunswick’s 49 electoral districts. This redefinition must be completed for the next general elections in the province, which should be held in 2024.

The SANB is satisfied with the appointments

According to SANBthe appointments announced today by the Prime Minister Blaine Higgs are good news for the Acadian community. The Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick is particularly pleased with the government’s decision not to reduce the number of ridings.

A few years ago the Prime Minister Higgs had toyed with the idea of ​​reducing the number of members of the Legislative Assembly. But two weeks ago he confirmed that number would remain at 49.

Furthermore, the SANB would like the Thériault-clinch revisits changes made by a previous Boundaries Commission in 2012.

According to the organization, the redistribution affecting the communities of Néguac and Memramcook has caused historical harm to Francophones. In both cases, the electoral weight of Francophones has decreased.

This is why the SANB asks the committee to take the linguistic communities into account in the next division.

The factor of the effective representation of the linguistic communities is not a factor like the others. It is a factor that must be taken into account, given the constitutional status of language rights and the obligations that flow from the law.supports the President of the SANBAlexandre Cedric Doucet.

A commission born in controversy

Green Party MP Kevin Arseneau, had denounced the way in which the appointments to the Electoral Boundaries Commission took place.

According to him, the Conservatives and the Liberals have not respected the process in place, which provides that the choice of candidates is made exclusively by the Legislative Administration Committee, and not by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Greens refused to participate in the way of doing things proposed by the Prime Minister’s Office. The people they then proposed to the Legislative Administration Committee were not selected to serve on the commission.

The reason that no one from the greens has been named is because we didn’t want to play the game from behind the doors. We defended the independence of this legislative committee, but we were the only ones, and we paid the priceinsists Kevin Arsenal.

In a press release, the government maintains that the six commissioners were unanimously nominated by the Legislative Administration Committee.

This is false, argues MP Arseneau.

” The government press release is lying. There is a lie to say that it was chosen unanimously. »

I was at that meeting, I can tell you, I can guarantee you, the decision of the whole process was not unanimous. I don’t understand why the government would lie without any embarrassment at this pointhe laments.

Whether Kevin Arseneau denounces the way the commissioners were appointed, he does not criticize the commissioners themselves. I have nothing against the commissioners who were appointed, but the process that led to their appointment, for me, is problematiche says.

We asked for comments from the government on the appointment of the commissioners, but to no avail.