Public notice: Canterbury Regional Council - Representation Review 2025
In accordance with section 19R of the Local Electoral Act 2001, the Local Government Commission determines that for at least the triennial general election of the Canterbury Regional Council to be held on 11 October 2025, the following representation arrangements will apply:
Canterbury Region, as delineated on Plan LG-13-2025-Con-1 will be divided into 7 constituencies and will be represented by a Council comprising 14 councillors elected as follows:
|
Constituency |
Councillors |
Plan delineating area |
|
North Canterbury/Ōpukepuke |
2 |
LG-13-2019-Con-2 |
|
Christchurch West/Ōpuna |
2 |
LG-13-2019-Con-4 |
|
Christchurch North East/Ōrei |
2 |
LG-13-2025-Con-2 |
|
Christchurch Central/Ōhoko |
2 |
LG-13-2025-Con-3 |
|
Christchurch South/Ōwhanga |
2 |
LG-13-2019-Con-6 |
|
Mid-Canterbury/Ōpākihi |
2 |
LG-13-2019-Con-7 |
|
South Canterbury/Ōtuhituhi |
2 |
LG-13-2019-Con-8 |
The ratio of population to elected members for each constituency will be as follows:
|
Constituencies |
Population* |
Number of members |
Population per member |
Deviation from region average population per member |
% deviation from region average population per member |
|
North Canterbury/Ōpukepuke |
87,000 |
2 |
43,500 |
-4,093 |
-8.60 |
|
Christchurch West/Ōpuna |
104,800 |
2 |
52,400 |
4,807 |
10.10 |
|
Christchurch North East/Ōrei |
100,600 |
2 |
50,300 |
2,707 |
5.69 |
|
Christchurch Central/Ōhoko |
102,500 |
2 |
51,250 |
3,657 |
7.68 |
|
Christchurch South/Ōwhanga |
88,300 |
2 |
44,150 |
-3,443 |
-7.23 |
|
Mid-Canterbury/Ōpākihi |
118,100 |
2 |
59,050 |
11,457 |
24.07 |
|
South Canterbury/Ōtuhituhi |
65,000 |
2 |
32,500 |
-15,093 |
-31.71 |
|
Total |
666,300 |
14 |
47,593 |
|
|
Under section 19V(6) of the Local Electoral Act 2001, the Commission upholds the decision of the Council not to comply with section 19V(2) in respect of the Christchurch West/Ōpuna, Mid-Canterbury/Ōpākihi and South Canterbury/ Ōtuhituhi constituencies, as:
- Compliance would limit effective representation of communities of interest by dividing the Selwyn and Ashburton communities of interest, territorial authority districts similar in terms of land size and attributes and from a functional perspective, to align either Ashburton District with the South Canterbury constituency or Selwyn District with the North Canterbury constituency; or
- It may result in constituencies not conforming with territorial authority district boundaries and grouping together two or more communities of interest that share few commonalities of interest, namely Ashburton District and the South Canterbury districts; and
- In the case of the Christchurch West/Ōpuna constituency, making this constituency compliant would result in a constituency that does not comply with ward boundaries or contains a grouping of wards that do not contain a logical grouping of communities of interest.
As required by section 19T(b) of the Local Electoral Act 2001, the boundaries of the above constituencies coincide with the boundaries of current statistical meshblock areas determined by Statistics New Zealand and used for Parliamentary electoral purposes.
The determination is available on the Commission’s website: Recent Determinations - Local Government Commission (lgc.govt.nz)
Penny Langley
Chief Executive Officer