It was great news for voters in the federal electoral riding of Delta.
The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia last year released its report with updated recommendations on proposed boundary changes, reversing an earlier recommendation to carve up the Delta riding.
Those earlier recommendations would have seen parts of the city lumped in with Surrey and Richmond East
The City of Delta was previously divided with South Delta being part of the Delta-Richmond East riding, while North Delta was attached to Surrey as part of the Newton-North Delta riding.
By the 2015 election, the boundaries were reconfigured to combine both North Delta and South Delta into one Delta riding.
Delta had previously been carved up and lumped into various federal electoral boundaries with other cities.
In 1960s, the city’s name was not even recognized, even though Delta was part of the Burnaby-Richmond federal electoral district.
In July 1965, the chambers of commerce for Delta and Richmond submitted a joint brief to the Electoral Boundaries Commission stating that there had been “virtual disregard” of the Municipality of Delta.
Each city council during that time endorsed that submission, which stated the electoral boundary should be redrawn and renamed Richmond-Delta, recognizing the large geographic areas of the Corporation of Delta and Township of Richmond.
The submission noted Delta was historically older than Burnaby, having been incorporated in 1879, whereas Burnaby and Richmond were not incorporated until 1892.
To further support Delta’s claim, it was shown that Delta was an area with high growth and there was not sufficient attention given to the rates of population growth.
“Failure to remedy this could result in considerable imbalance of parliamentary representation,” the brief stated.
In support of the contention that Richmond and Delta warrant consideration as a separate electoral district, several points were raised including the lack of common interests between Richmond-Delta and Burnaby.
The North Delta Ratepayers Association in the 1960s also conveyed concerns, including “Rural urban areas such as Delta have federal problems which are unique to the municipality as an entity.”
