The 2006 New Brunswick electoral redistribution was undertaken as a result of legislation introduced by Bernard Lord, the Premier of New Brunswick, Canada, on June 9, 2005. The legislation establishes a statutory requirement for redistribution of electoral districts after every decennial Canadian census.
The redistribution process set out in the legislation took approximately six months to complete, and was overseen by an independent commission. The bill introduced by the government would have required that 55 ridings be maintained with populations varying between 75% and 110% of 1/55 of the provincial population. The Opposition Liberals expressed a desire for the commission to have greater flexibility either in the variance of the average population or in the number of districts. On June 30, 2005, an agreement was reached and the bill was amended to allow the commission to ignore population basis entirely in "extraordinary circumstances," but should strive to be within the range of 90% to 110% of the average population of 55 districts.
There was considerable work to be done as 35 out of the 55 districts that existed from the outset were outside of the +/- 10% range. This is due in part to the population shifts over the course of a decade, and because the requirement was +/- 25% during the previous redistribution.
In the end, the commission was able to maintain most districts in their same alignment by means of minor boundary adjustments. However, two sets of districts were merged and there were considerable changes of district boundaries in the cities Dieppe and Fredericton.
Timeline June 9, 2005 - The Electoral Boundaries and Representation Act is introduced in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. June 30, 2005 - The legislation is amended to alleviate Opposition concerns and passes. July 14, 2005 - The Legislative Administration Committee of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick meets and agrees to the seven members of the Commission. The names will not be made public until the nominees have agreed to appointment and the cabinet ratifies them. August 11, 2005 - Government House Leader Brad Green announces that cabinet has approved two co-chairs and five commissioners whose appointments will take effect on August 22. August 25, 2005 - The Commission concludes its first meeting at which the co-chairs express concern about the short time available for them to complete their report. They also announce that the first round of public hearings will be held in the month of October and that they will soon launch a website. September 20, 2005 - The commission announces the details of their first round of public hearings. They will visit 12 communities from October 11 to October 28. October 11, 2005 - Public hearings to assist the commission in the drafting of its preliminary report begin. November 21, 2005 - The commission files its preliminary report outlining a proposal for a new electoral map. As expected, there are significant changes to almost all districts, though most are kept as minor as possible with one new district added in each of the Fredericton and Moncton areas and one district lost in each of Charlotte County and the Madawaska-Restigouche area. February 20, 2006 - The commission files its final report, making changes to 20 of 55 ridings from its preliminary report. Individuals have 14 days to file an appeal to the final report but such an appeal must be signed by 2 members of the legislature. If an appeal is filed, the commission has 30 days to respond. March 24, 2006 - The commission announces that it received 15 valid notices of appeal within the 14-day public response period; it has reviewed them and completed its work. In the end it makes 3 minor changes to electoral districts. The legislature may now only make recommendations with respect to changing names of electoral districts; the boundaries cannot be changed until after the next census.
Members of the Commission
Co-chairs Madam Justice Brigette Robichaud of Moncton. Justice Robichaud is a member of the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick. Madam Justice Margaret Larlee of Fredericton. Justice Larlee was the first woman on the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick, New Brunswick's supreme court.
Commissioners David Brown of Saint John, legal counsel to the New Brunswick Union of Public and Private Employees. Normand Carrier of Edmundston, a former vice-president for the Edmundston campus of the Université de Moncton. Richard Myers of Fredericton, a former vice-president of St. Thomas University and current professor of political science at the same institution. Reginald Paulin of Lamèque a former mayor and school principal. Pam Ward of Red Bank First Nation, an active participant in New Brunswick aboriginal governance.
Preliminary report On November 21, 2005, the Commission released its preliminary recommendations for new electoral districts. Despite the fact that the vast majority of existing ridings were outside of the +/- 10% population range, most were retained in the new distribution through minor adjustments to their boundaries. In all, 46 of 55 districts are largely unchanged. There are five essentially new districts, three of which resulting from a merger of previous districts or large parts of previous districts.
Only one district was created using the "extraordinary circumstances" clause of the legislation which allows districts to be less than 90% of the provincial average population. This was the district of Tantramar, which is an anglophone area surrounded by water, Nova Scotia and francophone areas. The Commission argued that the only way to maintain a community of interest was to leave the boundaries as they were. The districts of Nigadoo-Chaleur, Saint John Lancaster and Saint John Portland were the only others to have no changes whatsoever to their boundaries.
These proposals will be taken to the public in a series of hearings in January 2006, and may be subject to change before the commission tables its final report on February 18, 2006.
† represents a proposal that was altered in the final report
New districts Name of districtDescription of districtCodiac†This district is created by taking a large part of the old Dieppe-Memramcook district as well as significant parts of Moncton East and Moncton CrescentDieppe-Memramcook†The old district of Dieppe-Memramcook was the largest in the province and over 50% above the maximum population. Though maintaining the same name, this district loses almost half of the city of Dieppe to the new Codiac districtFredericton-LincolnThe southern half of Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak merged with a small part of Fredericton South and part of New MarylandGrand Lake-GagetownThe old Grand Lake, less those parts near suburban Fredericton, and approximately a third of the old district of Oromocto-GagetownNashwaaksis†Approximately half of the old district of Fredericton North and small parts of Mactaquac
Merged districts Name of districtDescription of districtCharlotte-The IslesA merger of most of Charlotte with Fundy Isles, less Campobello IslandFredericton-Fort NashwaakDespite sharing the same name with the existing Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak district, this is a much different riding. It is a merger of the eastern half of Fredericton North with the northern half of Fredericton-Fort NashwaakMadawaska-Restigouche†A merger of most of Madawaska-la-Vallée with most of Restigouche West
Largely unchanged districts Though these districts were all largely unchanged from their previous form, some new names have been recommended due to subtle community changes as a result of minor boundary changes or for other reasons. These districts are denoted by an asterisk (*).