Richmond Municipal Council is opposed to proposed federal electoral boundary changes calling
An elector casts his ballot. (Elections Canada photo)
for the formation of the riding of Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish.
Warden Amanda Mombourquette told last night’s regular monthly meeting in Arichat that the riding – which would take in rural parts of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, as well as Victoria, Inverness, and Richmond counties, along with the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, and Antigonish town and county – will be too large geographically and hard to serve properly.
Mombourquette said the reconfiguration will add additional municipalities, groups, and constituents to an MP’s already full plate.
Noting that it will take “hours and hours” to travel from one end of the potential riding to the other, Mombourquette said the new riding would require more than one main constituency office, and other additional resources.
Deputy Warden Brent Sampson said the current riding of Cape Breton-Canso is already large, and this proposal just exacerbates the problems.
While District 3 Councillor Melanie Sampson acknowledged that there’s not much they can do, she suggested council write a letter to Cape Breton-Canso MP Mike Kelloway because the proposed riding is not in their best interests.