August 1, 2011

Hon. Gordie Gosse

Speaker of the Nova Scotia Legislature

MLA Cape Breton Nova

1^st Floor, Province House PO Box 1617

Halifax, NS B3J 2Y3

Dear Mr. Gosse,

It’s time to cut the number of provincial politicians in Nova Scotia.

In the past two weeks, the Utility and Review Board (UARB) has ordered the Province’s two largest municipalities to cut the number of municipal politicians. Halifax will make a 30% cut in the number of city councillors and Sydney will make a 25% cut.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is urging you to lead the Province in the same direction – toward smaller and more efficient government. We are writing you to ask that you launch a new citizens’ commission to redistribute the riding boundaries and most importantly examine the number of politicians that are needed to govern Nova Scotia. The legislature has held a commission to determine electoral boundaries every 10 years and it has now been 10 years since the last commission. In 2001, a commission was formed, chaired by Saint Mary’s University President Colin Dodds, and it reported back in 2002.  That commission was tasked with setting the boundaries for a legislature of 52 seats – it did not have the authority to reduce the number of seats. The commission that preceded it was set up in 1991 and reported back in 1992.

Our Federation urges you to include three principles in the Terms of Reference for a new commission:

1.Reduce the number of MLAs;

2. Ridings should be equal in size – ridings designed to protect minority populations should be eliminated; and

3. No municipal council district should be larger than a provincial riding. As an example of this problem, once the new city of Halifax boundaries are in place, the city will have 16 councilors; the same area will be represented by 19 MLAs.

Given that it has been 10 years since the last commission considered electoral boundaries, it is time to take another look and ensure that the needs of Nova Scotians are being met in the most efficient and cost effective manner.

An election is possibly anywhere from one to three years away. We urge you to move quickly to set up a new commission and let it do its work so the new boundaries can be ready for the next election campaign. 

Thank you for taking the time to consider this issue and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Kevin Lacey

Atlantic Director

Canadian Taxpayers Federation

902.407.5757

[email protected]