MLA Hunter concerned about proposed Taber-Warner boundary changes

Westwind Weekly News Map supplied. NEW RIDING: If proposed electoral boundary changes for southern Alberta come to pass, the current Cardston-Siksika riding (west and north of the present Taber-Warner constituency) will be eliminated in favour of expanding west to create a new Cardston-Taber-Warner electoral district. The proposed new High River-Vulcan riding (north and west of Lomond) would be carved out of the remnants of Cardston-Siksika with some geographical additions from other existing ridings.

By Trevor Busch
Westwind Weekly News
editor@tabertimes.com

Sweeping boundary changes are being proposed for the current Taber-Warner electoral district in the province’s recent Interim Electoral Boundaries Report.

Redrafting the constituency into a new Cardston-Taber-Warner riding would bring in a large area north of the Oldman River including Vauxhall and the province’s southwest region including Cardston, the Blood Reserve and Waterton – essentially a redrawn version of the previous Cardston-Taber-Warner electoral district that existed from 1996 to 2017.

Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter is less than enthusiastic about the proposed changes, citing issues involving effective representation of the Highway 3 agri-food corridor.

“I’m not happy about the proposed boundary changes for Taber-Warner. I hope that’s just the first iteration, and we’ll see what happens in the future. In 2015 I was first elected in Cardston-Taber-Warner, so I understand that kind of thinking, but the reality is that right now what’s going on is you’ve got an agri-food processing corridor that has to be represented by MLAs and municipal leaders. And I think that it’s not with the boundary redistribution. It takes Coaldale out, it takes Lethbridge and puts it somewhere else.” 

Drafted by the provincial government’s Electoral Boundaries Commission (EBC), the interim report is a response to the substantial increase in Alberta’s population over the last eight years and the EBC Act which requires a review of all provincial constituency boundaries before the next Alberta general election.

The Commission reported that “changes to provincial law in the fall of 2024 increased the number of constituencies from 87 to 89 for the next general election,” and it is required to review the boundaries and provide a final report to the Legislative Assembly by March 28, 2026. It submitted the interim report to Speaker Ric McIver on Oct. 27.

A portion of Cardston-Siksika (which would be eliminated as an existing riding under the proposed changes) and Taber-Warner would be merged on the map and the boundary lines would create a vast new district north of the US-Canada border. The region north of Lethbridge extending to Vulcan would be removed from Cardston-Siksika and reestablished within the Livingstone-Macleod and High River-Vulcan districts.