New Brunswick electoral redistribution, 2013

The New Brunswick electoral redistribution of 2013 was undertaken through the process set out in the Electoral Boundaries and Representation Act of New Brunswick, Canada. The legislation establishes a statutory requirement for redistribution of electoral districts after every second New Brunswick general election.

A commission was struck to draw 49 electoral districts, a decrease from 55 districts, which will first be used in the 2014 provincial election. The 49 boundaries will have to be within the range of 95% to 105% of the 1/49th of the number of registered voters in the province except in "extraordinary circumstances".

Under the legislation, the commission will be chaired by one anglophone and one francophone and consist of 3 to 5 other commissioners, all of whom must be New Brunswick residents.

The Electoral Boundaries and Representation Act of 2005 set out for a redistribution of 55 ridings after every decennial census with ridings within plus or minus 10% of 1/55th of the population. In Fall 2012, the legislation was amended to reduce the number of ridings to 49, shift away from census-based population numbers to the number of registered voters, and to make the process occur after every second election (approximately once every 8 years) rather than after each census (once every 10 years).

The commission was appointed on August 28, 2012 following the unanimous recommendation of a committee of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. Its members are:

Hearings were held in 13 communities around New Brunswick in October and early November 2012. Following these preliminary hearings, the commission created a draft proposal for public consideration at a second round of hearings that were held in February and March 2013.

The commission released a draft map on January 17, 2013 which was open to changes following public consultations held from February 17 to March 6, 2013. Thereafter, the Commission prepared a final map, released on April 25. The Commission drew mostly completely new ridings. They said that because they had to reduce the number of ridings by about 10%, the tinkering that had been undertaken by previous boundaries commissions was not possible:

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