Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to be here and to present here today.
The recent report of the B.C. Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission proposes major changes to the riding of South Okanagan—West Kootenay. In rough terms, the proposal removes about half of the riding on the east and north sides and adds a similar amount of area and population to the west side. As well, the riding is given a new name: Similkameen—West Kootenay.
The areas being removed include Big White Ski Resort and Beaverdell in the Kettle Valley; the town of Nakusp and other villages on the east side of the Arrow Lakes; the Slocan Valley; suburbs of Castlegar; and the suburbs of Trail in the Beaver Valley, including the towns of Montrose and Fruitvale.
The area added is the entire Similkameen Valley.
I'm making this objection on behalf of over 1,100 of my constituents who have contacted me with deep concerns that there should have been a second round of public engagement following these major changes. Some of these changes violate the principles of community of interest, community of identity, and the historical pattern of the electoral district.
I'll say here that I included more detail in my written submission than I'm able to present here in four minutes.
The first draft from the commission made considerable changes to the west side of the riding. Not surprisingly, that proposal generated little or no interest at all in the West Kootenay, as the boundaries remained exactly as they had been for the last 10 years. There was no public interest from the West Kootenay in engaging with the commission then.
The second draft remedied the first draft concerns from the west side of the riding, but it made drastic changes to the east side in doing so. Now there is no public comment process to handle concerns about these latest changes.
First, the Beaver Valley is removed from the riding, and that includes Fruitvale and Montrose. This is easily the most problematic change suggested in the proposal. The Beaver Valley lies immediately adjacent to the eastern boundary of the city of Trail and is essentially a part of Trail in every way. There is a very long history of the connections between these communities, and they've always been included with Trail in federal and provincial electoral boundaries. This one change has generated about 1,000 emails, letters and briefs from local residents, elected officials, unions, businesses and other groups concerned about the impact that this change would have. This must be fixed.
Similarly, the communities immediately north of Castlegar are all essentially suburbs of Castlegar. Some of these have been retained in this riding and others have been removed, creating a situation where rural neighbours find themselves not in one, not in two, but in three different ridings.
The Slocan Valley is arguably the heart of the West Kootenay, but it is now removed from ridings shared by its West Kootenay neighbours and included in the new Vernon riding.
There is one change that my constituents support, and that is the transfer of the Big White Ski Resort to the Kelowna riding.
To summarize, my constituents are asking—and asking in the strongest possible terms—to retain the Beaver Valley, the suburbs of Castlegar and the Slocan Valley within the riding that is presented called South Okanagan—West Kootenay.
I'll conclude by suggesting that this could be fixed by keeping the Similkameen Valley with West Kelowna and making any further adjustments within greater Kelowna. This would allow communities in the West Kootenay, particularly the Beaver Valley, to remain with their historic communities of interest and identity.
The riding, whatever its final shape, should include the word “Okanagan” in its name as that valley makes up more than half the population of the riding.
Thank you.