A map provided by Elections Alberta shows the dividing line between provincial ridings within the limits of the City of Medicine Hat (generally Third Street). The ridings actually extend outward to include portions of Cypress County, as well as Brooks and the County of Newell.--Supplied Image
@MedicineHatNews
The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission will hold hearings this morning in Medicine Hat.
The body is tasked with examining Alberta’s riding boundaries and can suggest altering boundaries to equalize population, or in light of other factors.
A series of public meetings across the province this month arrives in the Hat this morning for a session from 9 a.m. until noon at the Town Place Suites, located on Stober Bay SE.
The commission is tasked with adding two electoral districts and will adjust other ridings to accommodate the changes based on population and other factors like transportation routes and regional centres.
The same process redrew southeast Alberta ridings into the current Brooks-Medicine Hat and Cypress-Medicine Hat ahead of the 2019 election.
Those changes saw the dividing line between the “Medicine Hat” riding and “Cypress” ridings moved north from the Trans-Canada Highway to essentially Third Street downtown, and the County of Forty Mile removed from Cypress and the City of Brooks and County of Newell moved over from Brooks-Strathmore.
Cypress County was also divided between the two ridings with the boundary set as the South Saskatchewan River (west of the Hat) and Township Road 132 and Highway 41A (eastward).
The result created two urban-rural ridings instead of an initial proposal to maintain a wholly urban riding in Medicine Hat, with two other large rural districts around it extending from Saskatchewan boundary to Vulcan.
The current commission sat in Brooks on Thursday night, and next moves to meetings in northern Alberta before concluding in Red Deer on June 19.
Virtual public meetings will be held on the morning and evening of June 23.
It will present a draft proposal for additional public feedback before a final draft is forwarded to the legislature for approval.
The commission is comprised of chair Justice Dallas Miller, of Medicine Hat, Julian Martin, of Sherwood Park, John D. Evans, of Lethbridge, former MLA and Alberta Party leader Greg Clark, of Calgary, and Susan Sampson of Sylvan Lake.
