Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Keep Communities Together In New Districts

People in Saint John telling the Electoral Boundaries Commission they want neighbouring communities to stick together.

The public meeting at the Hampton Inn Suites Tuesday night gave people a chance to voice their opinions on how the new and fewer 2014 districts should be divided up.

Tony Mowery lives on Prince Street on the lower west side but has to vote for Saint John Harbour instead of his preference of Saint John Lancaster, a district for most people on the west side. 


Wayne Dryer agrees, he says he'd like to see Saint John Harbour expand into the north and east sides rather than west.

Wellington "Duke" Murray says that no matter what, he doesn't want to see the Kingston Peninsula split into separate districts. 
 
Commission co-chair Allan Maher tells CHSJ news the meeting helped them identify the individual communities that live in Greater Saint John. He says these suggestions will greatly help their decision when they have to start drawing boundary lines.

The commission will host a second round of meetings in March where they'll propose and seek feedback on a draft of the new boundaries map with 49 districts instead of 55, each district hosting an average number of 11, 269 voters.


If you missed the meeting and would like to voice your opinion, click here.