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Title

Arrangement structure

Series part of

Office of the Chief Electoral Officer fonds [textual record (some microform), cartographic material, sound recording] (R1003-0-2-E)

Accession

1. CANADA. OFFICE OF THE REPRESENTATION COMMISSIONER
2. CANADA. OFFICE OF THE REPRESENTATION COMMISSIONER

Bilingual equivalent

Bureau du commissaire à la représentation [document textuel]

Date(s)

1964-1976

Place of creation

Canada

Extent

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Series consists of records containing minutes of meetings held by the various commissions, transcripts, and sound recordings of public hearings held in various localities in the provinces and Northwest Territories. The records also include copies of some of the submissions made by private individuals in the course of public hearings. Correspondence, memoranda between commissioners, with the press or the general public are found in these records. Also included are population statistics, surveys, maps, notes, comments on redistributions, press articles, legislative and procedural references, copies of conferences given, reports on public hearings and representations to the Commissions. The records are generally arranged by commission and include the reports of Electoral Boundaries Commissions for the years 1964-1965 and 1972-1976.

Conditions of access

Terms of use

Copyright belongs to the Crown.

Finding aid

Finding aid 59-1 is a typed and handwritten file list generally arranged by commission. 59-1 (Paper)

Additional name(s)

Canada. Office of the Representation Commissioner. Office of the Representation Commissioner.

Biography / Administrative history

The Office of the Representation Commissioner was established in 1963 under the provisions of the Representation Commissioner Act. A decision was taken to assign the responsibility for readjusting electoral constituency boundaries to independent commissions, one for each province and under a new set of rules. The 1963 legislation created the Office of the Representation Commissioner and ad hoc boundary commissions, one for each province and one for the Northwest Territories. Each commission had four members: a chairman designated by the chief justice of each province from among the members of his court; two members who were initially political appointees but subsequently became the designations of the Speaker of the House of Commons and finally the Representation Commissioner who was to sit on every commission. As soon as possible after the completion of a decennial census, the Commissioner was to prepare maps showing the distribution of population in each province and the Northwest Territories and to present his proposals in relation to the electoral district boundaries for each of these. The Commissioner's duties included the review and study of methods of registration of electors as well as methods of voting allowed for absent electors for illness or other causes and to present a report setting forth his recommendations in these matters. Each commission held hearings and received representations about its published maps. The commission considered the objections and when it drew its final map, it then became law.

The Representation Commissioner was appointed by Resolution of the House of Commons and his Office was designated as a department. The Secretary of State acted as spokesman for the Office in the Cabinet and in the House of Commons.

The position of Representation Commissioner was abolished by the Government Organization Act of 1979. The Chief Electoral Officer assumed at this point most of the responsibilities of the Commissioner under the provisions of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. Three-member commissions were established for each province and the Northwest Territories, each being chaired as previously by a judge and comprising two other members appointed by the Speaker. RG59 General Inventory

Additional information

Source

Government

Related control no.

1. 1969-0016 MISA
2. 1980-0118 MISA

MIKAN no.

155614