Enlarging Skeena riding makes no sense, says MP PRINCE RUPERT is the location to- morrow for the only stop in this area of the federal electoral boun- dary commission which has recom- mended Skeena be great enlarged, Below are three opinions of the proposed change, two of which will be pre- sented tomorrow, The third opi- nion is from Wil- liams Lake and will be given when Andy Burton the boundary conumission stops there on Oct. 11. The federal Skeena riding shouldn't be en- larged so that it sweeps down through the Car- iboo-Chilcotin toward Pemberton, says ils cur- rent MP. Andy Burton of the Canadian Alliance says that if changes are needed, the riding boundary should be extended eastward along Hwy 16. - The Skeena riding was one of several in rural B.C. to be affected by proposed boundary changes tied to population figures. With rural populations dropping and the urban south growing, the plan is to enlarge rural ridings to take in more people and come close to a target for average riding size. The problem with that, says Burton, is that a new riding to be called Skeena-Chilcotin would be almost impossible to represent be- cause of its size. It would take in places such as Williams Lake and Lillooet. “Going east [along Hwy16] would certainly make more sense,” said Burton. While the riding would still be larger geo- graphically, it would at least make more sense because Hwy16 would be a common connec- tion for constituents, he said. The MP did note the Skeena riding stret- ched east toward Vanderhoof many years back. Burton presents his views tomorrow in Prince Rupert. “Pve written municipalities and chambers of commerce and hope they also attend,” said Burton. Burton did note that an eastward expansion should be handled correctly so that it does not affect possible changes to boundaries in cen- tral and northeastern B.C, City councillor Marilyn Davies will repre- sent Tetrace at the hearings. Cariboo crushes riding change THE FOLLOWING is the basis of a presentation to be made by representatives of major political parties in Williams Lake opposing the enlarging of the federal Skeena riding by combining it with the Cariboo riding. The proposed riding of Skeena-Chilcotin would be some 2,500km from its southera boundary near Lillooet to the northern boundary near Atlin. This great distance will severely hamper an MP’s ability to serve the consti- tuents in any meaningful way. 7 ' The travel time or, as we call it, “windshield time,” would be 28 hours, non-stop, to cross this new tiding by vehicle. ‘It would leave precious J): litte stime . to: visit swith). fRs: andrhear ‘the: ‘concernprafir i the. constituents. ‘The added financial burden for the public, the Member of Parliament, and the candidates would ° be huge. ~Thie- proposed new ri- ding of Skeena-Chilcotin, being so immense, would require a minimum of three offices spread thoughout the riding in order to display some sem- blance of representation. These offices would be an added cost. The staff required to operate these offices would also be an . added cost. A Cont’d Page A6_ New riding would be bigger than England if approved By LORNE SEXTON AS A resident of the Skeena riding for the past 26 years, | am aware of the extreme impor- tance that people who live in isolated areas attach to being able to participate in their own governance. I am against the new proposed boundary of the Skeena riding for a number of reasons. Geography The proposed new Skeena riding would be approximately two and one-half times the size of England. If the new riding were laid east to west instead of north to south, it would stretch from Vancouver to the Manitoba border The proposed riding would be the only ri- ding in Canada that you would have to drive 600 kilometers through another riding to get from one end to the other. In other words, the proposed new riding completely ignores trans- portation routes. If a person from, say Bralorne at the south- ern end of the proposed riding wanted to come before this commission tonight, they would have had to drive for 13 hours, or take a bus for 24 hours. It is:2, 645km to drive from the most north-. erly point in this riding to the most southerly. To ilfustrate this distance, if you were to draw a circle with a radius of 2,645km with Ottawa at its centre, the circle would encompass al- most all of Canada (except the west of course, but we’re used to that) as well as all but seven of the continental United States. How can one man effectively represent such an area? “Perhaps it might be useful to point out that the ® ranchers: in the Chilcotin and Lilloette areas have absolutely nothing in common with the fishermen in Prince Rupert and Queen Charlotte Islands, and that no MP would have — a prasp on the p many issues that would affect the constituents of such a vast and varied riding : While the § commission has a mandate. to effect electoral boun- dary change part- ly based on popu- § lation, the recent downturn in our population has largely been caused by the economic reality of an extreme, but hopefully temporary downturn in our major industry. Once the US softwood duties are deal! with and pulp prices stabilize, our population will retum to prior levels, Representation To a city dweller, representation is taken for granted. A citizen of Vancouver could like- ly walk or take a short bus ride to see his re- presentative face to face, and it would be a fair bet that the MP would have a good grasp of any issue affecting that citizen. In the proposed Skeena Riding, people from the southern parts of the riding would be faced with up to a 13-hour drive or a 24- hour bus ride to see, their representative. After finally reaching the destination, they may find that their MP doesn’t know much about their issue. En-route, they would pass right by the of- fices of two other MPs in different ridings, Lorne Sexton then drive for an additional 570km to get to their MP's office. Does this make any sense? Legal Precedence The first Canadian court case to consider the constitutionality of electoral boundaries was Dixon v. Attomey General of British Co- lumbia, decided by the Supreme Court of Brit- ish Columbia in 1989. Dixon concluded that there are constitution- al limits on the unequal distribution of popula- tion between electoral districts. While the court decided that Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and freedoms did not re- quire absolute equality of voting power it did find that “relative equality of voting power is fundamental to the right to vote.” The Dixon case also concluded that devia- tions from “absolute parity” should be permit- ted, but only those “which can be justified on the ground that they contribute to better gov- ernment of the populous as a whole, giving due weight to regional issues within the popu- lous and geographic factors within the ® territory governed.” Dixon allowed that the plus or minus 25 per cent deviation in that case was tolerable “given the vast and sparsely populated regions to be found in British Columbia.” On the other hand, as noted by the British Columbia Electoral Boundaries Commission In its Report of December 3, 1998 “nothing in the ':}: MASSIVE change in the size of the federal “should the recommendations of a federal boundary - Skeena riding, shown here in white, is in order commission be accepted. it's being opposed. Dixon decision precludes an argument that, in | appropriate circumstances, a deviation greater than plus or minus 25 percent may be justi- fied.” It should be: noted that this commission saw "> fit to leave the riding boundaries as -they.were. Lorne Sexton is the president: of the Skeena Canadian Alliance constitiency association. eet Oi The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - AS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD | The Mail Bag Time to get vocal Dear Sir: . Why is it preposterous to compensate aboriginal ' people for their loss of land? In the early years of this - country the French signed a treaty with the British for - Canada. Treaties were never signed here in B.C. (with' the exceplion of the Peace and Vancouver Island areas). I’m pretty sure that any citizen would fight for compensation if their land was taken from them. I’m quite confident with that thought. T want to know how native land claims can take 110 per cent of the country as mentioned by others. | Most of the land is protected by private ownership, by the province and used by highways and railroads. All treaty information is available to the public to inform people of the issues there’s no need to make inflammatory statements that are not true. In a recent letter to the editor, Peter Randrup asked, ‘Why does this generation want to right every wrong’? We need more people asking those kinds of questions who are concerned with truthful answers. We all know that we can never change history — but history will be repeated over and over again if we don’t change the way we think. If a child fails a course in school, the child repeats the course until it’s done right. Maybe politicians do use issues for the sake of being politically correct, but I’ve spent time with non-native, middle-class citizens who truly believe in making those everyday changes to stop discrimination. Mr. Randrup talks about evolution and conquering as if they are part of the natural order. ] don’t think what happened in the past was ‘natural’. We're not conquered — out numbered, violated, recovering and stunned ~ yeah, but not conquered. I agree with Mr. Randrup about one thing. Whether the division is intentional or not, it’s working. Aboriginal or not, we’re fighting against each other’ when we should be working together. The effects of oppression are similar for everyone. Why don't I ever hear the general public blame capitalism or ‘the ones with all the money’, or globalization for the lack of jobs around here? While the rich get richer, minority groups scrape by with what little they have. Aboriginal people don’t have special rights and privileges. The iruth is that we don’t have any more. rights and privileges than non-natives do, we have fewer and we have barriers and restrictions. I certainly agree. with Mr. Randrup about the paternalistic regime. Have you heard of internalized and horizontal oppression? That’s what will happen and I see it happening already — nepotism and the hierarchical systems just to mame a few. All [ can do is fight oppression on a daily basis. ]’ TE always face racism and classism and sexism and | ageism. VI! always have to face people whose ideologies are very old and opposite from mine, ‘Mr. Randrup asked some questions that deserve _ Serious, dialogue and consideration. 1 hope most of “your readers will go beyond his racist rant to consider the questions ‘and tealize that’ now is the ‘time for’ working toward answers together. It is time for those who agree about becoming ‘| allies, or those who believe our votes don’t count and ‘tour voices won’t be heard, to get more vocal and not worry about whether it’s politically correct. ta do so. Stacey-Lee Campbell, Terrace, 8. Cc. Moms need this help Dear Sir: The Ministry of. Children and Family, Development is planning to cut the program for ‘Mother's Time Off. I've been a member of the. Mother’s Time Off program for a long time, about four. "years or more. I can’t believe the ministry is going to try and shut down the program. This really is upsetting. Mother's Time Off has been there in times when I needed support and ] am not the only mom in Terrace’ “who depends on it. My kids have learned a lot from the child care ‘worker. I’ve learned a lot about myself, and I’ve made " many, many friends. You can’t take the only support;: ‘that we have away from us. That’s just not. fight. We need something to fall back on, when in’ Need of support. Taking this program away: from us will hurt a lot of people. Laura Davis, Terrace, B.C. Keep it down, eh Dear Sir: We visited Terrace and thoroughly enjoyed: Riverboat Days. The music of the Terrace Community Band was excellent and a pleasure to listen to, as it always is. We were a little disappointed, however, with their appearance. [I’m sure if Jim Ryan was still: in charge, he would not have wanted them to parade "in such a mishmash of dress ~ shorts, jeans, skirts, | baggy pants, etc. I realize that at the present time an expensive , uniform is out of the question, but surely it’s not ‘. impossibie to have some sort of dress code. It would - be a great improvement if each person wore black dress pants, a white or coloured golf style shirt, and + white runners, something tike the 25-year grads wore. I don’t feel it should be too difficult to make the band look as good as it sounds. Show a little pride, you have an excellent band, be proud of it. .+ My only other comment is why does the music in the park have to be so loud? [It must be hell for the people living in that part of town. Has anyone ever checked the decibel jevel? I’m sure it must be well above the legal level. ‘Ty. | Ll was able to walk away when it got too loud; but the people manning the concessions. and people who * live there were not able to do the same. Les and Dorothy Always. Prince George, B. c ~ About the Mail Bag _ The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our’ address Is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G. 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mall : US at standard@kermode.net. No attachments, please. We need. your name, address and. phone fumber for verification. Our deadline is ' noon Friday or noon Thureday if i's a long Js, weekend,