Sudbury

Far northern Ontario provincial ridings to be doubled

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Legislature to vote this fall to split current two electoral ridings into four in time for 2018 election

The new povincial electoral map drawn to include the four proposed ridings in far northern Ontario: Timmins, Mushkegowuk, Kenora-Rainy River and Kiiwetinoong. The Ontario legislature will vote this fall on whether to approve the recommendations. (Government of Ontario)

The Ontario legislature will vote this fall on adding two more ridings to the province.

Over the spring months, an electoral boundaries commission traveled across northern Ontario seeking feedback from residents.

The panel was tasked with finding a way to better represent the Far North region at Queen's Park. That region is currently divided into two ridings: Kenora-Rainy River and Timmins James Bay.

In its final report published Tuesday, the commission recommends doubling the number of ridings to four.

The other ridings to be created would be Kiiwetinoong in the northwest, and Mushkegowuk in the northeast. Kiiwetinoong would be a mostly Indigenous riding, while Mushkegowuk would be mostly Francophone.

In the northeast, the riding of Timmins-James Bay would be divided into the city of Timmins and the new large riding of Mushkegowuk. That riding would include all communities north of Timmins.

The MPP for Timmins-James Bay, Gilles Bisson, says he's not happy with the recommendation because it doesn't allow for Indigenous constituents to be fully represented at Queen's Park.

Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson says if electoral boundaries are changes, Indigenous constituents in the northeast won't be well represented at Queen's Park. (CBC)

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"The idea here was, and this is why everybody was pretty excited about this in the First Nation communities, was to create ridings where they would be in a majority and unfortunately that has not happened."

Mushkegowuk would only be made up of 15 per cent of those constituents who identify as Indigenous says Bisson.

"Friends of mine on the James Bay [Coast] were contemplating what this meant to them. [They] said 'listen we're not surprised, it's not the first time that we've been down this road where governments say they're going to do something and we end up getting nothing."

Bisson says it would be premature for him to decide now which riding he might run in during the provincial election. He says he has New Democrat supporters all across the Timmins James Bay riding.

If the change is approved it would take effect in time for the provincial election in June 2018

With files from Angela Gemmill and Samantha Samson