VICTORIA - NDP leader Carole James has done her second summer shuffle of critic assignments to prepare for the fall legislative session and begin to gear up for the next B.C. election.

James named Skeena MLA Robin Austin as a new critic for rural communities. At a news conference in her legislature office after returning from a fishing holiday in the B.C. Interior, James said the government needs to account for an economic boom that is leaving many rural areas behind.

Rural families are struggling with a lack of senior home care and child care, schools and hospitals are hurting, at a time when resource revenues from rural areas are piling up record surpluses for the government, James said. And now rural areas are threatened with a loss of provincial representation, as the Electoral Boundaries Commission examines population shifts in the province…