Milton councillor moves motion opposing current proposal for federal ridings
Published September 13, 2022 at 2:41 pm
At a meeting on Sept. 12, a Milton councillor moved a motion opposing the current proposal for federal ridings.
The motion was requested by Zeeshan Hamid, Regional Councillor for Ward 4, who is also currently in the Milton mayoral race. It was seconded by Councillor Colin Best.
The notice of motion noted that the Constitution of Canada requires that federal electoral districts be reviewed after each decennial (10-year) census to reflect changes and movements in the country’s population.
The current federal redistribution process began in October 2021 and on August 19, 2022, the Commission published the proposed electoral districts.
The redistribution is currently proposing three electoral districts to include BurlingtonMilton West, Georgetown-Milton East and Wellington-Halton.
The notice of motion noted that in the Town Council’s opinion, the proposed electoral district boundaries do not “reflect Milton’s communities of interest or identity, respect historical patterns of previous electoral boundaries for the electorate or reflect a manageable geographic size for districts given Milton’s projected population growth until 2031.”
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As a result, the Commission has been requested to reconsider its initial proposal to better reflect Milton’s community of interest and that the naming conventions of any electoral district be reconsidered in order to better represent the majority population of the electoral district.
“Federal ridings are balanced every 10 years. That process is underway again and I do not like the current proposal because it splits Milton into three ridings,” wrote Hamid on Twitter following the meeting.
Hamid noted that the Commission had a similar idea in 2012 when they wanted to create two ridings: Burlington North – Milton South and Halton Hills – Milton.
“It was my motion then as well that organized an opposition because I felt that Milton was better represented by a unified riding,” added Hamid.
“Our growing population means we need more representation. I feel that the current proposal splits us into three doesn’t achieve that,” he concluded.