Council seeks feedback on representation options
Public feedback is open on preliminary options for councillor representation areas for Canterbury Regional Council.
All councils are required by law to review representation arrangements every six years, Environment Canterbury General Manager Governance Lisa Goodman said.
“Our Councillors represent different areas of Canterbury. Due to population changes and other factors since our last review, we need to review our structures to ensure our representation is fair and effective ahead of the next local body elections in October 2025.
Currently, the regional council has seven constituencies, with two councillors elected from each one. The last time the regional council did a review was in 2018.
What is a representation review?
The Local Electoral Act 2001 sets out three things a regional council must cover in a representation review. They are:
- the number of electoral areas – constituencies (local councils use wards), and
- the boundaries of those constituencies and their names, and
- the number of Councillors to represent them.
Representation options
The current constituencies do not meet the criteria for an even spread of population per councillor. The Council has developed options to address that while trying to maintain connections between communities that share interests or values, Ms Goodman said.
“The most obvious and straightforward change we’re proposing is minor adjustments to our constituency boundaries in Ōtautahi/Christchurch to align them with Christchurch City Council ward boundaries following changes they made in 2022.
This resolves population issues in the city constituencies and is included in the three options we're asking for feedback.
The three options are:
- retain the status quo (with Ōtautahi/Christchurch City constituency realignment)
- merge Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies
- create a new constituency combining Hakatere/Ashburton District and the current Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency.
Find out more about the representation review, view maps for each option, and complete the survey to tell us which option best represents your community.
“We’ll use the feedback to develop a single proposal for approval by the Council in July ahead of formal public consultation.”
Feedback closes on 26 May.
Note: Mana whenua representation is not included as part of the review. Our Council has two Ngāi Tahu Councillors representing mana whenua interests across all of Waitaha/Canterbury. This was achieved through the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Act 2022 and is not part of this consultation.
Previous representation decisions
In August 2023, the Council decided to use the first-past-the-post voting system for the 2025 and 2028 local elections.
In November 2023, the Council decided not to have a Māori constituency, believing that the best, most appropriate representation is direct representation by mana whenua.