OTTAWA - The federal government is set to introduce a bill that would give Alberta, B.C., and Ontario extra seats in the House of Commons.
The bill to be tabled Wednesday would add 22 seats to the Commons, which currently has only 308.
It would give Alberta five extra seats, while B.C. gets seven and Ontario receives 10.
These provinces would get more seats after the 2011 census to reflect their population growth.
Provinces whose growth is static or even dwindling would keep the seats they have now.
The bill is essentially an amendment to the Constitution, but because it deals solely with seats in the Commons, it can be done unilaterally by Parliament without any need for consultation with the provinces.
The legislation would change the complex mathematical formula used to allocate Commons seats.
That formula, last adjusted in 1985, would have added seven new seats to the Commons after the next census and raised the seat total to 315.
The original bill was killed when Parliament prorogued this fall.
When he first announced the plan last spring, House Leader Peter Van Loan said those three provinces were unfairly represented.
Each MP in those provinces represents an average of 107,000 constituents, while the average elsewhere in Canada is 86,000.
Van Loan said last May that the government's plan would make seat-distribution fairer.
"These are the principles that were the core foundation of Confederation,'' he said at the time.
"We are seeking to do what George Brown envisioned in 1857 when he argued that all persons 'should be placed on the same level with respect to representation and political rights.'"
