The public is having its final say on plans to reduce the number of MLAs in New Brunswick, and it seems there isn’t much support for the changes.

While residents don’t necessarily oppose having fewer politicians, they are worried about losing their representation in the legislature.

The commission responsible for the new electoral map sat quietly during today’s meeting in Fredericton, while presentation after presentation objected to their work.

“That change has…is a significant change in terms of what we think is voter parity and the effective representation of rural areas,” says Brent Sansom, a resident of Nashwaak Bridge.

Fredericton City Council is worried about the inclusion of urban areas in largely rural ridings.

“It is difficult to imagine how those living in townhouses and condominiums in an urban setting west of Brookside Drive, in the city, share common concerns and interests with rural dwellers in Napadogan,” says Coun. Eric Megarity.

The Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission is reworking the map, cutting the number of ridings from 55 to 49, and redistributing voters.

All areas of the province are losing ridings - more in the north than in the south -  and as the commission grapples with rural versus urban, they will also have to wrestle with cultural and linguistic concerns.

New Brunswick’s Acadian Society says the new map may work mathematically, but fails to consider people.

“They look like little pupils, very happy because they did their mathematics and they put everything in a little box,” says Jean Marie Nadeau of the Societe de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick.

“But they forgot that within the box there’s some people, sad and mad, because they don’t recognize themselves in those little boxes.”

“We’ll make whatever changes we can make, based on the input, but I suspect we won’t be able to please everyone,” says Allen Maher of the Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission.

Once changes are made, the commission will present its final report to the legislature.

Changes will be in place before the next provincial election, in the fall of 2014.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell