Hundreds of Newmarket-Aurora residents could find themselves voting in a new riding in a few years as a commission proposes boundary changes.
Commissions across the country are reviewing and proposing new riding boundaries, to reflect population changes. For Newmarket-Aurora, Ontario’s commission is proposing to have a portion of Aurora south of Orchard Heights Boulevard shift into the Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill riding.
On the north end, the riding would shift to end at the border of Newmarket, whereas it currently extends to Green Lane, pushing that area into the newly formed New Tecumseth-Bradford riding.
It is the latter change that Newmarket-Aurora MP Tony Van Bynen is objecting to, as he presented to the commission this week. He said the community in that area, the Harvest Hills subdivision, is tied to Newmarket.
“Harvest Hills, in terms of the parks, municipal facilities, etc., they consider themselves as part of Newmarket,” Van Bynen said.
The boundary review happens every 10 years. Public hearings for the proposal are now ongoing, with members of the public able to make submissions until Oct. 29.
Ontario’s commission said changes coming with an additional electoral district.
“The commission found it necessary to propose many new electoral boundaries to correct wide variations in voter equality,” Ontario commission chair justice Lynne C. Leitch said in a news release, adding that these variations have emerged due to population change.
That means ridings like Newmarket-Aurora are getting tweaked, with the aim of creating approximately equivalent riding populations of around 116,000, Van Bynen said. The new version would have a population of 118,666.
In a letter to the commission, he argued that the Harvest Hills community should be kept within Newmarket-Aurora, and at 2,100 people, it would not make too significant an impact.
“The Harvest Hills community shares little if anything in common with New Tecumseth-Bradford,” Van Bynen wrote. “In all aspects, this is a community associated with Newmarket.”
But he takes no issue with losing part of Aurora in his riding. Van Bynen said Aurora should eventually be made whole with the entire town in one riding, as opposed to being split into three.
“Aurora is a divided municipality … It makes it awfully difficult, in terms of the municipal leadership, being able to relate to their provincial and federal counterparts,” Van Bynen said. “That migration (in Newmarket-Aurora), is at least transitioning Aurora to become whole, and I think it may take a few years to have that happen.”
But most of northern Aurora will still be in the Newmarket-Aurora riding, with the boundary along Wellington Street.
Changing that cannot happen too quickly, Van Bynen said, given it could negatively impact other districts.
“It’s a lot like a balloon. If you squeeze in one area, then another area pops out."
The process will still take many more months, with an estimated timeline of early 2024 before the changes can become finalized.
Although the deadline to file to present at a public hearing is closed, you can still make written submissions up til Oct. 29 by messaging [email protected]. Mail submissions can be sent to PO Box 37018 Southdale, London, ON, N6E 3T3.
It is not an easy process, Van Bynen said, and hard to predict if the commission may be swayed regarding Harvest Hills.
“They have a huge task ahead of them. Moving a boundary either north or south has a substantial domino effect,” he said, adding that hundreds of people are making recommendations on the proposed boundaries.
