Another federal electoral riding redistribution has come and gone – without a riding for Indigenous communities in northern Quebec.
“People talking about reconciliation, this is part of reconciliation, wanting a representative from the region instead of having someone that’s south of us that doesn’t know my realities,” said Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corporation, one of the governing bodies of Nunavik.
He has worked with the Cree and Naskapi living in northern Quebec to get their own electoral riding for years.
The Inuit of Nunavik, the Cree of Eeyou-Itschee and the Naskapi near Labrador are part of one of the largest electoral ridings in Canada in terms of land mass named Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.
But they’re outnumbered by the denser southern population of the region – there are around 32,900 Inuit, Naskapi and Cree in the region out of a total population of around 90,000 people.
“This is something we’ve wanted to see for many, many years and getting our own representative elected from the region to speak on our behalf, which nobody can do right now, because these people that are getting elected are from the south,” said Aatami.
The member of parliament for their riding, Sylvie Bérubé, has only visited Nunavik once according to one report, since she was elected in 2019 – and Bérubé was only there for a few hours last November. No one from Bérubé’s office returned APTN’s calls.
The review of federal ridings in Canada take place by commissions located in each province. For Nunavik, the review was completed by three members of what is called the Commission of Quebec. At the moment it’s made up of a retired judge, a retired academic and a political science professor who is currently working at the Université de Montréal. APTN reached out to the commission for comment but didn’t hear back.
In the 2022 electoral redistribution report, the commission’s justification for not adding a riding for First Nations and Inuit was that their population did not meet the “electoral quota” – the minimum number of people relative to the province’s population to have its own electoral riding.
The most recent electoral riding redistribution was just completed this year and will come into force next April.
Electoral reform only happens every ten years, but Aatami hopes that they won’t have to wait that long for their own representative.
“Canada has to work with the people as partners instead of treating them as if they’re second-class citizens in their own home country,” said Aatami.
This is despite that, according to the Electoral Knowledge Network, “Districts should, as much as possible, be cohesive units with common interests related to representation.”
Read More:
‘Total shock’: Mi’kmaw MP Jaime Battiste fighting boundary changes in his riding
The Inuit, Naskapi and Cree in northern Quebec have been trying to get an exemption to the minimum population size as a “community of interest,” defined by the Electoral Knowledge Network as a population with shared interests as “the result of a common history or culture, a common ethnic or tribal background, or a variety of other ties that create a community of voters with distinct interests.”
The review of the ridings in the province was completed by three members of what is called the Commission of Quebec. At the moment it’s made up of a retired judge, a retired academic and a political science professor who is currently working at the Université de Montréal. APTN reached out to the commission for comment but didn’t hear back.
The electoral commission’s report stated that it did not want to make an exemption, saying the right to proper representation is superseded by the need to maintain voter parity, stating, “the risk is that derogations [or exceptions], will become the rule, and the fundamental principle governing the drawing of an electoral map, namely equality of electoral weight, will be relegated to oblivion.”
While most electoral ridings in Canada have more than 80,000 people, some have less than 40,000 people including all four of Prince Edward Island’s ridings, the riding of Labrador and the riding of Nunavut.
Former Canadian Inuit senator Charlie Watt said the lack of a riding has more to do with political will.
“The argument is always the same one. You don’t have enough population. That’s their only argument that they have, and I guess on the other hand, do they really want to spend money on a small number of people,” said Watt.
Editor’s Note: Any changes in federal electoral riding boundaries are handled by the electoral boundaries commission from each province and not by Elections Canada as previously reported.
