Voters throughout Nanaimo could be casting ballots in a new riding come the next provincial election. (Dreamstime)

By Alex Rawnsley

redraw the lines

New provincial riding splits proposed for Nanaimo area

Oct 4, 2022 | 9:13 AM

NANAIMO — Changes are likely coming to where and how local residents vote provincially.

The B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission released their preliminary report into changes to provincial ridings, recommending re-drawing electoral divisions through Nanaimo.

Changes include renaming the three ridings on the mid-Island to Nanaimo, Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Nanaimo-Oceanside, and re-drawing many of the splits through the city. According to the commission’s preliminary report, keeping all of Nanaimo in one riding wasn’t possible.

“Doing so would create a riding with a population exceeding the maximum of the usual deviation range, compromising effective representation.”

The Nanaimo riding would encompass areas south of Departure Bay Rd., to Extension, Chase River and Cinnabar Valley. Shifting lines in the City itself would allow Gabriola Island to join the riding.

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Giving Gabriola Island residents easier access to their MLA was something requested multiple times during a March 22 visit to Nanaimo by the commission.

“I came here today on the ferry as a foot passenger,” Steven Earle, a Gabriola Island resident said during the meeting. “The ferry docked within the Nanaimo riding, I walked to this meeting and it took about five minutes. If I had wanted to walk to the Constituency office of the MLA for Nanaimo, it would have taken me about the same time.”

Earle added a similar walk to the Ladysmith office for his riding’s MLA, Doug Routley, would take roughly four and a half hours.

The newly proposed Nanaimo riding encompasses central Nanaimo with Gabriola Island. (BC Electoral Boundaries Commission)

The old Parksville-Qualicum riding would remain unchanged, taking areas of Nanaimo, north of Rutherford Rd., but be re-named Nanaimo-Oceanside.

The biggest shift would come with what’s left over.

Nanaimo residents east of Rutherford Rd., and north of Departure Bay Rd. would join those in Cedar, Cassidy and Ladysmith to form the newly-named Nanaimo-Ladysmith electoral district, formerly Nanaimo-North Cowichan.

“We are not proposing an exclusively North Nanaimo riding because we wanted to balance its population with the adjacent Nanaimo-Oceanside electoral district,” the report read.

Nanaimo-Ladysmith would include parts of north Nanaimo, with areas south of the city including Cedar. (BC Electoral Boundaries Commission)

The commission recommended the creation of six new electoral districts to bring the total number of seats in Victoria to 93.

The lone new proposed seat for Vancouver Island is in Langford, with others in Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley, Surrey and Kelowna.

Recommendations from the commission will be refined ahead of the final version of the report released next April, which will be forwarded to the Legislature for consideration.

If approved, the changes would come into effect for the next provincial election due in 2024.

The full preliminary report is available here.

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