And while the mayor will find out if he will be holding on to the city, some area reps will be losing parts or even all of their constituencies according to the redistricting proposal.
You've heard many of them share their initial concerns with the proposal, but today Minister Henry Charles Usher went in depth with what he thought were some of the issues, including whether the law allows the Elections and Boundaries Commission to even make some of the decisions proposed.
He also felt that the process could have been made easier if they had waited on the completion of the census.
Henry Charles Usher, Area Rep, Fort George
"There are a couple things with that redistricting exercise and it's something that we've been talking about for some time. If you read section 90 of the constitution which governs redistricting, section 90 says very clearly that the Elections and Boundaries Commission, their duty if to look at the population, the entire population, the total population of the country, it doesn't talk about voting population, it say population. Now it would have been very prudent if they would have had the census to be able to do their work properly so I think it's very unfair, that time constraint that was put on them and it was put on them because there was a pending case in court, I think it was claim 55 of 2019 and to me, an arbitrary date was given, July 17th, that you had to have a report by July 17th. We had proposed when the Elections and Boundaries Commission were being faced with this claim, why not wait at least 30 days, 60 days until after the census, why not set that date then but an arbitrary date of July 17th was put forward, they were required to put forward their proposal, but I am sure that the proposals at the Elections and Boundaries Commission finalized after the Taskforce had done its work would have been much more informed if they had had the benefit of the census. "
"The Elections and Boundaries Commission is tasked with doing this exercise and what they're tasked in doing is look at the total population and perhaps change the boundaries of the constituencies. Now if they feel like there should be an addition to any constituencies they can make that proposal and then parliament votes on it. There's no where in any part, section 89/90 that says they can remove any constituency, so I'm wondering if that's even an authority that they have, a power that they have to remove a constituency."
"So I think there are some legal questions that have to be answered and I think that's why it's very important, the language is a bit not too clear in that section so I think it's important that the PCC takes a look at it and that specific guidelines are given to the elections and boundaries commission as to what they can and can't do and if they're appointing a Taskforce, what that Taskforce can and cannot look at."
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