Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen has mixed feelings about a proposed change in his riding boundaries for the next provincial election. The Manitoba Electoral Divisions Boundaries Commission is proposing to shrink the boundaries of the Steinbach riding to include only the Steinbach-Blumenort-Mitchell area. Goertzen says the commission has a challenging task in keeping the average population of each riding equal.

"This is the second time that I've gone through redistribution. Steinbach is probably somewhat unique in Manitoba, maybe Winkler and Morden would be similar, where there's such growth within the areas and within the communities that the riding does continue to get smaller geographically. The boundary commission is really restrained by law in terms of how many people they can have within an individual constituency. They are staying within that target, which is about 22,000 or 23,000 people."

Goertzen says in the last redistribution ten years ago, he lost the Niverville and Grunthal areas. This time he will lose the New Bothwell and Kleefeld areas.

"For me, as an elected representative, that's always difficult in the sense that you get connections within communities, you get strong connections in those communities and so you hate to lose them. But I don't think that the boundary commission has much choice because they're really restrained on population."

Goertzen notes, ten years from now, if growth continues the way it is, the Steinbach riding will consist only of the City of Steinbach.

"Oh, I think no question that in the next go round, this happens every ten years by legislation, if Steinbach continues to grow at the pace that it is, I would expect that next time, and potentially Hanover as well, could essentially be ridings on their own. I think there's no question that's where it's headed but it will likely take one more redistribution to get there."

Current Steinbach riding boundaries.