Reserves not affected by changes to Alberta’s electoral boundaries

Alberta’s electoral boundaries have been updated, but the changes won’t have any major impacts when First Nation voters head to the polls during the next election.
“There are many changes right across the province, the biggest ones being the creation of four new electoral districts – one in Edmonton, one in Calgary and two in Wood Buffalo,” said Drew Westwater, director of election operations with Elections Alberta.

Westwater said that, for the most part, boundaries were changed to accommodate population growth. In order to have fair representation, each electoral district must have an average population of 40,880.

“Reserves haven’t been affected greatly by the changes. They remain wholly in their electoral division,” Westwater said.

The Blood Reserve has been transferred from the Livingstone-Macleod electoral division to Cardston-Taber-Warner.

The Foothills-Rocky View electoral division no longer exists in its current form. Tsuu T’ina Nation Reserve now falls under the Chestermere-Rocky View electoral division.

The Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo electoral division has been divided into two new divisions—Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo and Fort McMurray-Conklin. The electoral division has been divided along the Slave and Athabasca Rivers. Within Fort McMurray, the lower townsite and Timberlea areas are included in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo; with the remainder in Fort McMurray-Conklin.

The changes to electoral boundaries are the result of recommendations made by a government-appointed committee to review the existing boundaries in terms of effective representation. Starting in 2009, the Electoral Boundaries Commission conducted research, public consultation and gathered written submissions from the public in regards to existing electoral boundaries. In the summer of 2009, the commission submitted its final report which contained all recommendations. The commission’s recommendations from the final report were approved as the Electoral Divisions Act by the Legislative Assembly on Oct. 26, 2010.

During the consultation process, Chief James Ahnassay from Dene Tha’ First Nation, Chief Lorne Bulldog from Beaver First Nation and Chief Gus Loonskin from Little Red River Cree First Nation provided a written submission on behalf of the North Peace Tribal Council. Their reserves are situated within the Peace River electoral district which borders British Columbia and the Northwest Territories and is one of the largest electoral districts in Alberta.

“Together, we submitted a letter of support to redraw electoral boundaries,” said Ahnassay, “We wanted to have more access to MLAs and greater representation than we have at present.” Peace River electoral boundaries did not undergo any significant changes.

Aside from population growth, other factors that were considered during the review process included the boundaries of municipalities and communities; common community interests and community organizations, including those of Indian reserves and Métis settlements, and geographical features like roads and mountains.
The new electoral boundaries will be implemented prior to the next provincial election.