Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act
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The ''Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act'' (), commonly known by its
acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
EBRA, is an act of the
Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada () is the Canadian federalism, federal legislature of Canada. The Monarchy of Canada, Crown, along with two chambers: the Senate of Canada, Senate and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, form the Bicameral ...
that was passed by the
26th Canadian Parliament The 26th Canadian Parliament was in session from May 16, 1963, until September 8, 1965. The membership was set by the 1963 federal election on April 8, 1963, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was disso ...
in 1964. Under the EBRA, every ten years, ten electoral boundaries commissions (one in each province) are established to revise the electoral district boundaries in their province. Each commission is composed of three members. It is chaired by a judge appointed by the chief justice of the province and has two other members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Commons.


Background

In the early years after
Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
, after each decennial census, the government would introduce a bill describing the boundaries of each electoral district and then have the bill adopted like any other piece of legislation. This was subject to criticism as being a highly biased task focused on maximizing the governing party's electoral successes, often referred to as “
gerrymandering Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...
”. In 1903, Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier (November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and Liberal politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadians, French ...
altered this procedure by placing the readjustment of boundaries in the hands of a special committee of the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
on which MPs from all parties were represented. Each time a redistribution of seats was scheduled to occur under the
Constitution Act, 1867 The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 3) (),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 1867'' (BNA Act), ...
, the government brought in a bill which did not contain any details about the boundaries of the various ridings. After the bill was read a second time, it was referred to a special committee instructed to “prepare schedules to contain and describe the several electoral divisions entitled to return Members to this House”.


Passage

Even before
Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...
, suggestions had been made to place the drawing of electoral boundaries into the hands of an impartial body and not with Partisan MPs. This continued to be a concern after Confederation and, on a number of occasions, it was recommended that the process be placed instead into the hands of judges.


Diefenbaker Government

In 1962, Prime Minister
John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...
proposed a
motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...
that called for a 5 Member national electoral boundaries commission, composed of 4 superior court judges, and the electoral commissioner. With Parliamentary approval required before the commission's electoral districts became effective. The Motion Passed, and a bill to that effect was introduced, but died on the order paper when parliament was dissolved for the 1962 election. During the short
25th Canadian Parliament The 25th Canadian Parliament was in session from September 27, 1962, until February 6, 1963. The membership was set by the 1962 federal election on June 18, 1962, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was d ...
, no progress was made on the subject.


Pearson Government

Following the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
victory in the 1963 election, on November 26, 1963 Secretary of State
Jack Pickersgill John Whitney Pickersgill (23 June 1905 – 14 November 1997) was a Canadian civil servant and politician. He was born in Ontario, but was raised in Manitoba. He was Clerk of the Privy Council in the early 1950s. He was first elected to fe ...
introduced a new motion, which prepared the way for a bill to provide for the establishment of electoral boundaries commissions. In accordance with the motion, Prime Minister Pearson introduced the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, the bill took a full year to get through Parliament, with prolonged delays because of disagreements over its major clauses.


Provisions


Appointment of Electoral Boundaries Commissions

As soon as possible after the completion of each decennial census, the
Chief Statistician of Canada Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the bo ...
prepares and sends the relevant population figures to the Chief Electoral Officer. The Chief Electoral Officer then calculates the total number of House of Commons seats and their distribution among the provinces. After the Chief Electoral Officer has this information published in the
Canada Gazette The ''Canada Gazette'' () is the official government gazette of the Government of Canada. It was first published on October 2, 1841. While it originally published all acts of the Parliament of Canada, it later also published treaties, hearing an ...
, the process of appointing the members of each commission begins. An electoral boundaries commission is established for each province by the government within 60 days of the government receiving the population figures or within six months of the first day of the month fixed for the taking of the census, whichever is earlier. No commission is appointed for
Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...
, the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
or
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
, as these territories only have one seat each. Each commission consists of a chairperson, normally a provincial superior court judge who is appointed by the chief justice of the province, and two other individuals appointed by the Speaker of the House of Commons. No sitting member of the Senate or of the House of Commons or of a provincial legislature can be appointed to a commission. As soon as the electoral boundaries commissions have been established, the Chief Electoral Officer provides each chairperson with the relevant population figures. Each commission has up to 10 months from the date it receives this return to recommend constituency boundaries in a report to the Chief Electoral Officer.


Drawing of Boundaries

Each commission is required to draw constituency boundaries in such a way that the population of each constituency is as close as possible to the
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obtained by dividing the provincial population as determined by the census by the new number of seats allocated to the province. No constituency is permitted to have a population smaller than 75% of the quotient or greater than 125%, although in extraordinary circumstances a commission may exceed these limits. As soon as possible, each commission prepares a proposal for the number of seats, the boundaries of the electoral districts and the names of those districts. Each proposal is accompanied by a notice inviting electors and Members of the House of Commons to one or more public meetings. Following the hearings, each commission reviews its proposals, prepares a report and transmits it to the Chief Electoral Officer before the end of the 10-month period. The Chief Electoral Officer transmits a copy of each report to the Speaker of the House of Commons as soon as the report is received. The Speaker tables these reports in the House and ensures that they are referred to a committee designated to deal with electoral matters.


Consideration by the House

Members have 30 days following the tabling or publication of the reports to file an objection in writing with the clerk of the committee to which the matter was referred. Members must specify the provisions objected to in the reports and the reasons for their objection. These representations are made in the form of a motion signed by at least 10 Members. Following the filing deadline, the committee has 30 sitting days to review the Members’ representations. At the conclusion of its consideration of the reports and the objections, the committee returns the reports to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker then immediately sends the reports and attached documents to the Chief Electoral Officer for distribution, if necessary, to the various electoral boundaries commissions for reconsideration in light of the objections. No discussion of the reports or the objections takes place in the House. The commissions must consider the objections within the following 30 days, but they are not compelled to make any changes as a result of the objections. Each commission then submits a final report, with or without amendment, to the Chief Electoral Officer, who forwards it to the Speaker of the House. Once tabled in the House by the Speaker, the commission's decision is final and without appeal.


Representation Order

After each commission has submitted its final report, the Chief Electoral Officer prepares a representation order. The representation order specifies the number of Members to be elected in each province, divides each province into electoral districts, describes the boundaries of each district, and specifies the population of and the name to be given to each district. The new boundaries cannot be used at the time of an election unless at least seven months have passed between the date the representation order was proclaimed and the date that Parliament is dissolved for a general election.


Redistributions under the EBRA


1966, 1976 and 1987 Redistributions

In every decade between 1960 and 2000, Parliament adopted legislation either to temporarily suspend or to amend the redistribution process. After both the
1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
and
1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...
censuses, the readjustment process was suspended to permit amendments to section 51 of the Constitution Act, 1867, setting out the formula for representation in the House and to make some changes to the readjustment process itself.


1996 Redistribution

After an initial suspension of the process in 1992, in 1995 the government of
Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...
proposed the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, 1995. It proposed the repeal and re-enactment of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. The objective of the bill was to stop the ongoing redistribution plans and to start the process over again, allowing the next election to be held on the basis of the 1981 boundaries. The bill would have also brought about a redistribution every five years in provinces where the shift in population warranted it, a new triggering mechanism for holding a decennial redistribution which would have eliminated an unnecessary redistribution in provinces without a significant change in population, and parliamentary oversight of appointments to electoral boundaries commissions. However, while it was passed by both houses of parliament, it ended up being subject to a dispute over amendments between the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
and
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, and died on the
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without receiving
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.


2003 Redistribution

The 2003 redistribution was the first under the EBRA to go ahead on schedule. The effective date of the redistribution was moved several months earlier by an act of parliament to allow for the
2004 Canadian federal election The 2004 Canadian federal election was held on June 28, 2004, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority but was able to continue ...
to occur on the new map.


2012 Redistribution

The 2012 redistribution was the second under the EBRA to not be temporarily suspended. This was primarily due to the Government of
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...
having already previously passed an amendment to section 51 of the Constitution Act, 1867 through the Fair Representation Act before the process began. The act received royal assent on December 16, 2011, several months before the commissions were established on February 21, 2012, allowing the redistribution to go ahead on schedule.


2022 Redistribution

In 2022, the government of
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
passed the Preserving Provincial Representation in the House of Commons Act, that amended section 51 of the ''Constitution Act, 1867'' to require that each province have no fewer seats than what they had in the 43rd Parliament (2015 - 2019). This was done to prevent
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
from losing a seat in the House of Commons with the 2022 redistribution. Since the redistribution of the reduced Quebec seats was already underway, the bill re-started for the province of Quebec the 10-month deadline to recommend constituency boundaries, but did not change the schedule for any other provinces.


Notes


References

{{reflist Canadian federal legislation 1964 in Canadian law 1964 in Canadian politics