A public hearing will be held in Abbotsford on Wednesday, giving residents a change to voice their opinions on proposed changes to existing provincial electoral boundaries that would bring considerable change to the area before the 2017 election.
The hearing will be held at the Sandman Hotel at 9:30 a.m.
The electoral boundaries commission released their preliminary report last month, outlining proposed updates to provincial boundaries, which would combine some regions of Abbotsford with neighbouring municipalities.
There are currently three ridings in Abbotsford: Abbotsford West, Abbotsford South and Abbotsford-Mission.
Local regions would be combined with other municipalities, creating the electoral districts of Aldergrove-Abbotsford, Fort Langley-Abbotsford, Abbotsford Centre, Chilliwack-Sumas, along with changes to the existing Abbotsford-Mission.
The boundary changes would split up the existing Abbotsford South. In the proposal, there would be two ridings south of Highway 1 divided at Highway 11. The eastern portion would be the Chilliwack-Sumas district, including much of the city of Chilliwack, and the western portion would be the Aldergrove-Abbotsford district, which includes Aldergrove and the Township of Langley.
North of Highway 1, the westernmost part of Abbotsford – west of Clearbrook – would form part of the Fort Langley-Abbotsford district. Between Clearbrook and Highway 11 would be the Abbotsford Centre district – an exclusively Abbotsford region. It would include neighbourhoods north of Highway 1, west of Highway 11 and east of Clearbrook and Glenmore roads, bordered in the north by the Fraser River.
The Abbotsford-Mission riding would contain the rest of Abbotsford east of Highway 11, north of Highway 1, Fraser Valley Regional District Area H, and the eastern part of Mission.
Residents can also submit their input online at bc-ebc.ca, or by email or mail by 11:59 p.m. on May 26.
The input will be analyzed over the summer before the final proposal is submitted as recommendations to the Legislative Assembly by Sept. 25.
