Burnaby residents will have to wait till the new year when Parliament reconvenes to find out the fate of their federal electoral boundaries.
A boundaries commission has redrawn the riding maps to accommodate B.C.'s growing population, and the original proposal was to split Burnaby-Douglas in two and join the upper half with a sizeable chunk of the North Shore, leaving Burnaby with three ridings instead of two.
"One of the biggest decisions they have to make in British Columbia is the North Vancouver and North Burnaby merger," said Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart.
While the commission is non-partisan, the move could have benefited the Conservatives, and New Democratic MPs Peter Julian and Stewart opposed the idea.
The commission held public hearings across B.C. throughout September and October, and the last one was in Burnaby on Oct. 18. Elections Canada is now printing the commissioners' final report, which should be ready by Friday, but it must be released in Parliament before it's made public.
Since Parliament is not in session till Jan. 28, British Columbians will have to wait till their MPs review the report before they can read it.
For more on the commission's work, go to www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca.
