A majority (63.2 per cent) of those who answered a recent survey favour the creation of a citizens’ assembly to study options for electoral reform.

The full results of the survey, conducted for the Yukon Legislative Assembly’s all-party Special Com-mittee on Electoral Reform, are now available to the public.

The survey focused on the potential use of a citizens’ assembly to assess electoral systems and to recommend whether the Yukon’s current system should be retained or another system adopted.

A citizens’ assembly (also known as a citizens’ jury, citizens’ panel, or policy jury) is an independent, non-partisan body formed of randomly selected individuals to deliberate on important issues.

The Yukon Bureau of Statistics (YBS) administered the survey for the committee from Jan. 12 to March 5.

The bureau’s report to the committee can be viewed on the committee’s webpage https://yukonassembly.ca/SCER at https://yukonassembly.ca/sites/default/files/2023-04/ scer-35-survey-report-2023-04-06.pdf

There were 6,354 Yukoners (17.5 per cent of eligible individuals) who completed the survey.

The survey found 8.2 per cent of respondents did not favour an assembly’s creation, while 28.4 per cent were not sure.

Of those favouring an assembly, the most popular option was two members per electoral riding (31.3 per cent), followed closely by one member per riding (27 per cent).

While 15.3 per cent of respondents said they preferred the option for three members per riding, 18.2 per cent said they were not sure, and 8.2 per cent selected “other”.

About a third (32.5 per cent) of the respondents opined that there should be other considerations for the makeup of a citizens’ assembly.

Their comments were coded into 11 themes. In some cases, a comment fell under several themes.

Many respondents wrote about the need for diversity and inclu-sion amongst the members of 
the assembly.

Others raised issues such as the need for political neutrality, skills and experience of the members.

Some respondents wrote about the need for the assembly members to be representative of the Yukon’s population as a whole.

An assembly could engage with the public to gather feedback on potential options for electoral reform.

The question presented several response options for how the public could provide their input to the assembly; respondents could select as many options as 
they wished.

Surveys were the most popular option (63.7 per cent).

That was followed by provisions for written feedback by letter or email (42.7 per cent), attending public hearings in person (40.3 per cent), and attending public hearings by teleconference or video conference (34.6 per cent).

While 4.7 per cent of the respondents provided comments via the “other” category, many of those comments were general in nature.

Other suggestions included:

• online discussion forums and social media engagements;

• workshops, meetings, focus groups and town hall discussions;

• in-person and online educational sessions;

• targeted engagement with specific audiences such as First Nation governments and schools;

• personal outreach (telephone, mail, and door-to-door);

• a referendum; and mock trials of different voting systems to demonstrate how they work.

A total of 1,793 respondents (28.2 per cent of all respondents) said they would be interested in participating as a member of a citizens’ assembly.

The committee must complete its work and report its findings and recommendations on electoral reform before the end of the current sitting of the legislature.

The government can accept some or all of its recommendations, but is under no legal obligation to do so.