The Electoral Boundaries Commission is about to review the current borders that mark Manitoba's 57 provincial constituencies.

The boundaries are reviewed every 10 years to reflect changes to Manitoba's population.

The Commission will use the 2016 Statistics Canada census population of our province in its review.

Manitoba's population of just over 1.2 million will be divided by the 57 provincial electoral divisions, establishing a quotient for each division of approximately 22,427 people per division.

In 2008, significant changes were made to several ridings in our region including the creation of the Morden-Winkler constituency, which eliminated the old Pembina constituency.

Emerson constituency also saw some dramatic adjustments. The riding's east border was moved from the Ontario border to an area near Highway 59 and its western boundary was extended into the Pembina Valley, south of Winkler and Morden.

"I did have some concerns in the last boundary review," said Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon. "I was surprised by the jog in the border that the Commission created west of Highway 32 where it drops down one mile, goes west two miles and then goes north three miles. That adjustment separated the community of Osterwick. There's not a lot of people living there, so I'll be making a submission to the Boundary Commission that they run the line straight so that they don't divide a community and cause a lot of confusion."

The Emerson constituency shares a border with the Morden-Winkler riding in the Osterwick area and Graydon suggested it would make a lot more sense to graft that small south portion of Morden-Winkler into his riding.

"No disrespect to my colleague (MLA Cameron Friesen), but if there is somebody sitting on that line south of Winkler and his neighbour across the highway with whom he farms side-by-side has the same issue, they will come to me. I'm not saying they don't talk to their MLA, but when there's a common issue with people along that line they will quite often corner me in coffee shop in Blumenfeld."

The Commission will issue its initial 2018 proposal regarding electoral divisions in June.

Public hearings to consider that proposal will be held in September, before the Commission's final report.