Liberals, NDP call for fewer seats in House of Assembly

Opposition party leaders have called on the provincial government to reduce the number of seats in the house of assembly as a way of reducing government spending, but the premier is lukewarm about the idea.

There are currently 48 seats in the legislature, representing a population of 513,000. 

Liberal leader Dwight Ball told the CBC program On Point with David Cochrane that the number of MHAs should be reduced.

"I believe 48 MHAs is too much for the Parliament that we have right now and the areas that we represent," said Ball. 

"I think we could do the job representing the people of this province with 40 MHAs," added Ball. 

NDP leader Lorraine Michael said MHAs can be eliminated without hurting democracy.

"I look at places like Nova Scotia, Ontario or other provinces, and the MLAs have many more people in their ridings than we have in our districts," said Michael.

For her part, Premier Kathy Dunderdale said she's not rejecting the idea, but she's also not actively pursuing it either.

"Everything has to be considered," said Dunderdale. 

"Sometimes you have to do this $100,000 at a time, sometimes you have to do it $1 million at a time, especially when you are forecasting a deficit over $1 billion," said Dunderdale.

"Whatever way is prudent to do, then that's certainly what we are going to consider."

You can see the complete interview with the opposition leaders during this week's edition of On Point with David Cochrane on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Newfoundland time on CBC Television.