Proposal seeks to sever south Guelph into new Wellington-Halton electoral district

Guelph City Hall is pictured on Friday, May 6, 2016. (Christina Marshall / CTV Kitchener)

A new proposal by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario may see voters living in Guelph’s south end included in a new electoral district for the next federal election.

The proposal comes as a part of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, which requires federal electoral districts to be reviewed every 10 years to reflect changes and movements in Canada's population.

If the proposal is approved, the current Guelph electoral district will be severed in the South at Arkell Road, and in the East at the Hanlon Expressway to Wellington Street West.

Those living in the severed areas will become a part of a new electoral district named the Wellington-Halton electoral district, which is currently known as the Wellington-Halton Hills electoral district.

"In exercising its mandate under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act and given the allocation of one additional district to Ontario, the commission found it necessary to propose many new electoral boundaries to correct wide variations in voter equality that have emerged across the province over the past decade due to population change," said the honourable Justice Lynne C. Leitch, chair of the three-member commission in a media release.

If approved, the Guelph district would hold a population of 118,686, while the Wellington-Halton district will see a population of 111,375, according to the interactive map from the federal government.

During the 2020 federal election, the Guelph electoral district saw 70,205 votes cast, of which 434 were rejected, according to Elections Canada.

In total, the district had a population of 131,794 with 105,836 eligible voters.

Elections Canada data for Wellington-Halton Hills shows 68,104 votes were cast, with 448 rejected ballots.

The population for the district is listed as 120,981 with 101,212 eligible voters.

Changes to the electoral boundaries will not come into effect until April 1, 2024, at the earliest.

A virtual hearing on the proposal is slated for Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m.