In 2021, Christchurch City Council (CCC) undertook a review and realigned its wards to enable better representation of Ōtautahi/Christchurch communities.
The Local Electoral Act says our constituency boundaries should align with local council boundaries. Our constituency boundaries in Ōtautahi/Christchurch still align with the old CCC ward boundaries, so we propose a minor adjustment to align with the current CCC ward boundaries. This realignment is included in all of three options.
Using this map: To turn off and on the current constituency boundaries and city wards click on the square icon in the top right corner of the map. To collapse the legend at the bottom click on the square icon in the bottom right corner.
View fullscreen map.
Comparing population ratios
The charts below show you the population ratio comparisons between our current constituencies and how they would change by realigning them to the new CCC ward boundaries.
Current constituency boundaries
Christchurch City constituency realignment
View option one - Retain the status quo.
View option two - Merge Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies.
View option three - Create a new constituency combining Hakatere/Ashburton District and the current Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency.
This option keeps the Ōpukepuke/North Canterbury, Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies the same and only makes minor changes to our four Ōtautahi/Christchurch constituency boundaries, to align with the new Christchurch City ward boundaries.
Ōpukepuke/North Canterbury constituency includes:
- Waimakariri District
- Hurunui District
- Kaikōura District
The Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury constituency includes:
- Waikirikiri/Selwyn District
- Hakatere/Ashburton District
The Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency includes:
- Timaru District
- Waimate District
- Waitaki District (in part)
- Makēnehi/Mackenzie District.
The number of elected representatives for each constituency would remain the same, two for each.
You may feel that alignment of communities of interest is reason to keep them as they are. However, this would mean under the population criteria set out in the Act, Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury/would be under-represented and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury over-represented.
At the time of the last review in 2018, the Local Government Commission approved our proposal to have two councillors in Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury despite the lower population served because of the vast size of the constituency. Is there another way to align the communities of interest and address the population criteria?
Using this map: To turn off and on the current constituency boundaries and city and district council boundaries click on the square icon in the top right corner of the map. To collapse the legend at the bottom click on the square icon in the bottom right corner.
View fullscreen map.
Population ratios for option one
View option two - Merge Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies.
View option three - Create a new constituency combining Hakatere/Ashburton District and the current Ōtuhituh/South Canterbury constituency.
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In addition to realigning the Christchurch City constituencies, we could combine the Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies to create one much larger constituency including:
- Waikirikiri/Selwyn District
- Hakatere/Ashburton District
- Timaru District
- Waimate District
- Waitaki District (in part)
- Makēnehi/Mackenzie District.
This constituency would be represented by four Councillors.
This option would provide a fair representation in terms of population ratio, but increase the geographical area represented by the Councillors elected. With a larger area, there is less certainty of the spread of Councillors. There is the potential that all elected Councillors could come from within one or two of the districts (i.e. all four representatives could be from Waikirikiri/Selwyn).
Using this map: To turn off and on the current constituency boundaries and city and district council boundaries click on the square icon in the top right corner of the map. To collapse the legend at the bottom click on the square icon in the bottom right corner.
View fullscreen map.
Population ratios for option two
View option one - Retain the status quo
View option three - Create a new constituency combining Hakatere/Ashburton District and the current Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency
Know what you think we should do? Share your feedback now.
In addition to realigning the Christchurch City constituencies we could create a new constituency by extending the Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury boundary to include Hakatere/Ashburton District. This would leave Waikirikiri/Selwyn (currently in the Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury constituency) as a constituency on its own.
This option would provide a fair population representation ratio for the new constituency, however, Waikirikiri/Selwyn would be over-represented.
In this option, the two constituencies would be represented by two elected councillors each.
Using this map: To turn off and on the current constituency boundaries and city and district council boundaries click on the square icon in the top right corner of the map. To collapse the legend at the bottom click on the square icon in the bottom right corner.
View fullscreen map.
Population ratios for option three
View option one - Retain the status quo.
View option two - Merge Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies.
Know what you think we should do? Share your feedback now.
Other options were considered during the early informal consideration. Councillors decided these options did not satisfactorily meet legislative requirements around communities with shared interests and effective and fair representation. Therefore, these options were not developed for your feedback.
These options included:
- Creating eight Ōtautahi/Christchurch constituencies aligned with City Council ward boundaries, with one elected Councillor for each.
- Replacing Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies with two new constituencies: One including Hakatere/Ashburton District and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury districts, the other combining the Banks Peninsula ward of Ōtautahi/Christchurch City and Waikirikiri/Selwyn District.
- Making Ōtautahi/Christchurch City a single constituency with eight councillors elected from anywhere within the city.
- Including the Malvern Ward in Waikairikiri/Selwyn within the Ōpukepuke/North Canterbury constituency. It is currently in Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury.
- Creating a new coastal constituency.
- Retaining the Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency but with one elected Councillor.
View option one - Retain the status quo.
View option two - Merge Ōpākihi/Mid Canterbury and Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituencies.
View option three - Create a new constituency combining Hakatere/Ashburton District and the current Ōtuhituhi/South Canterbury constituency.
Know what you think we should do? Share your feedback now.