pone
a mandatory ten year review of electoral boundaries in the province may have
breached the Elections Act. The issue was raised during today’s question
period in the House of Assembly."Under questioning today in the House of
Assembly, the Minister of Justice verified that government ordered the
Electoral Boundaries Review Commission to cease their mandatory review of
electoral boundaries in the province," said Mr. Grimes. "This review process
has to be completed by law every ten years. The minister confirmed today
that government made a unilateral decision to postpone this review until
2006 which will be 13 years after the last review. I question if government
has the legal right to make this decision without amending the Elections
Act.
"The purpose of having a mandatory ten year review of electoral
boundaries is to ensure there is appropriate representation for all areas of
the province. I question why government has arbitrarily changed this review
to 13 years without any changes to the Act? Will this review be completed
before the next election? Who gave the instruction to postpone this
mandatory review?
"This government claims to be open and transparent, yet they continuously
do things that are hidden and secretive. The most recent is this decision to
arbitrarily ignore the law. This process was not set up for governments to
unilaterally do a review when circumstances look most favourable to win
elections. When will they follow through on this review?"