No official extension for boundary review
Posted Aug 22, 2012 05:23:52 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia’s Justice Minister says he cannot officially give the province’s electoral boundaries commission any more time to complete its report, following a request for a three-week extension.
The commission is tasked with redrawing the province’s electoral map ahead of next year’s planned provincial election. It is supposed to submit its final report by Aug. 31 under the legislature’s terms of reference, however the commission has asked the government for an extension until Sept. 21.
“I don’t have the authority to grant that one way or the other,” Minister Ross Landry told the Canadian Press. “I’ll accept the report, and I look forward to receiving the report when I receive it.”
Any extension request have to be brought up and voted on in the legislature, which is not currently sitting. The House of Assembly is due to reconvene this fall, and that when the report is expected to be submitted.
“Because it’s in the terms of reference, technically, they have to meet all the terms of reference,” added Landry.
However, there’s no mention of any penalty if the commission files its report late.
Landry said if there are any objections to the commission taking some extra time to complete its work, then that would also have to be dealt with in the legislature.
The extension request does not come as a surprise to Kings College journalism chair as this is the second time the commission has been ordered by the province to do the review.
“Because they had to do a second interim report, it throws off the timing anyway. I think it’s legitimate that they should want more time. What they can come up with in that time, that’s the real question,” Stephen Kimber told the Rick Howe Show Tuesday.
The commission reviewing the boundaries originally retained protection for four minority ridings, despite populations below the government’s desired threshold.
The government rejected that initial report, resulting in a second plan that adds two seats in Halifax and eliminates ridings in Pictou, Cape Breton and Yarmouth.
Residents in some areas of Nova Scotia have expressed their opposition to the proposed redesign of the electoral map, which would see some protected ridings eliminated.
“What they may want to do is produce their report and say whatever their going to say, and let the government dismiss them,”
Kimber says while the review was scheduled to happen anyway, the NDP government seems to be pushing for the review to be completed ahead of the next provincial election.
“It allows them to create two new ridings in metro which is the NDP’s strong point,” he explains. “This all can be argued as legitimate, but it doesn’t smell very good, particularly when the government is ramrodding this thing through.”
