A invoice that may enable the Nova Scotia authorities to carve out a protected using for the Acadian area of Chéticamp has handed the committee stage with out modifications, regardless of voter parity considerations raised by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.
The laws is in response to a Nova Scotia Supreme Courtroom ruling that stated the Constitution rights of the Acadians in northwestern Cape Breton had been violated after they weren’t thought-about for protected using standing in 2019.
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Nova Scotia has 4 protected ridings whose boundaries are shielded from electoral redistribution, and guarantee efficient illustration of Acadian and African Nova Scotian voters.
The invoice would enable the federal government to nominate a particular electoral boundaries fee to create one other protected using for the Acadians, after the court docket stated Chéticamp and surrounding areas characterize a cultural neighborhood of curiosity.
However Halifax chamber president Patrick Sullivan instructed the legislature’s regulation amendments committee right this moment {that a} full fee must be struck to have a look at illustration throughout the province.
Sullivan says whereas the chamber acknowledges the court docket choice concerning Chéticamp, there stays a big lack of voter parity between Halifax and different areas of the province.
He says Halifax at present has 23 of the legislature’s 55 seats when the chamber believes it ought to have about 26 seats based mostly on its rising inhabitants.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 24, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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