Electoral boundaries

Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

GASPÉ – The hearing on the merits of the revision of Quebec’s electoral map was heard on May 8, 9, 12, and 13 before the Superior Court at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse. 

In December, Judge Annie Breault of the Superior Court for the District of Terrebonne, partially granted the interlocutory injunction requested by elected officials from the Laurentians and Central Quebec regions and ordered the Commission on Representation on the Electoral Map to continue its work, but maintained for the time being the Act that halted the revision of the electoral map. The court allowed the Chief Electoral Officer to complete his work and eventually file his second report, as required by the electoral law, if the court ruled that the law adopted in May to suspend the electoral law was invalid. 

Elected officials from the Laurentians and Central Quebec regions had filed a legal action against the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec and the Attorney General of seeking to have the law overturned and the revision process resumed. 

On May 2, 2023, the National Assembly of Quebec, unanimously adopted the Act to Interrupt the Electoral Boundaries Process. 

The Gaspé Peninsula MRCs group pointed out that the electoral map on the table was then highly detrimental to the principle of effective representativeness, directly affecting the representation of the region in Quebec’s democratic institutions. 

The group made representations to the court on November 28, 2024, asking to become a stakeholder in the case. “Effective representativeness is at the heart of the debate, but how do we define it? It was defined in a Supreme Court ruling, the Carter Decision of 1991, which stated that beyond the principle of one voter, one vote, we must take into account the factor of belonging and geographic scope. In short, several factors must be taken into account, not just one voter, one vote,” comments Daniel Côté, mayor of Gaspé and spokesperson for the Gaspé Peninsula Prefects Table. He is listed as a respondent in the motion filed to have the table intervene in the debate. 

According to him, this definition will be the subject of the debate before the court. “We have nothing against reviewing the electoral map, but we must take into account regional specificities. We can’t move a piece of Matanie with a piece of Gaspésie.” We can’t cut an MRC or town in two in the case of a region like ours. It doesn’t work on the ground,” says Mr. Côté. 

“Also, from a legal standpoint, is the law adopted by the Quebec National Assembly that suspended the overhaul of the Election Act legal or not? I think that once 125 members vote on the same side, it seems to me that it should have some force. Saying no to a Cabinet decree invoked by a premier is fine. But saying no to a unanimous will and saying that this decision is unfounded—I would be cautious if I were the court, and I think the court has clearly grasped the magnitude of the matter,” suggests Mr. Côté, who is also a trained lawyer. 

The mayor of Gaspé hopes that the National Assembly will move forward with a reform of the Election Act before a court decision. 

However, nothing is on the National Assembly’s agenda. “The criteria need to be clearer. To my knowledge, not much has moved forward. We weren’t involved or consulted But there was a clear promise from François Legault’s government, with support in principle from the opposition, that the legislation needed to be reviewed. Let’s hope we won’t leave the Gaspé ridings to a court or a commission based on insufficiently precise criteria,” Mr. Côté demanded. 

Recall that the commission suggested merging the Gaspé and Bonaventure ridings, bringing together the MRCs of Côte-de-Gaspé, Rocher-Percé, Bonaventure, and Avignon, to create Gaspé-Bonaventure, while Haute-Gaspésie would be transferred to the Matane-Matapédia riding, a Lower St. Lawrence riding. As of April 30, 2023, Bonaventure had 35,898 voters and Gaspé 30,131, far from the minimum threshold. The gap was -29.2% and -40.6%, respectively. Gaspé thus ranked third among the least populous ridings, behind the Magdalen Islands, which has exceptional status, along with Ungava. 

Based on projections of the number of voters from the Institut de la statistique du Québec, the gap in Gaspé’s average should soon surpass that of Ungava. 

In 2017, the Commission maintained Gaspé’s negative exception status and granted the same status to Bonaventure. However, since the inequalities in representation in these ridings are increasing, the commission did not wish to renew this status. 

In addition to removing a riding in the Gaspésie, the Commission suggested doing the same thing in Montreal to create a riding in the Laurentians and another in the Centre-du-Québec region.