Ontario says the province is being shortchanged under proposed federal legislation to give Canada's three fastest-growing provinces more seats in the House of Commons.

'It's just basically a matter of fairness. British Columbia and Alberta will be having representation by population. Ontario won't.'—MPP Marie Bountrogianni

The bill, introduced last Friday by the federal Conservatives, aims to restore representation by population with the addition of 22 seats by 2014 — 10 for Ontario, seven for British Columbia and five for Alberta.

Under the bill, Ontario will have 116 seats, or 35 per cent of those in the Commons, compared to its current 106 seats and 34 per cent.

But Ontario Minister for Democratic Renewal Marie Bountrogianni says, based on her ministry's calculations, the country's most populous province is entitled to two to five federal seats on top of the proposed 10.

"It's just basically a matter of fairness," she said Thursday. "British Columbia and Alberta will be having representation by population. Ontario won't."

The proposed legislation is intended to give other provinces the same level of proportional representation enjoyed by Quebec. The country's large provinces have such high populations their MPs represent, on average, 21,000 more constituents than those from provinces with low populations.

Peter Van Loan, the federal minister for democratic reform, admitted last Friday that the bill would move B.C. and Alberta closer to a level playing field, but Ontario will still be "modestly under-represented."

He said Thursday he doesn't see a problem with the seats allotted to Ontario. "Ontario is going to do much better under Bill C-56 than under the current legislation."

Bountrogianni has written to Ottawa asking for clarification of the complicated formula used by the federal government to arrive at its decision.

She says if her ministry's calculations are correct and the federal government fails to fix the formula, Ontario will oppose the legislation.

The House of Commons currently has 308 seats and its seating formula hasn't changed since 1985.