Evidence of meeting #60 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was map.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I'd like to call our meeting to order so we can move along today.
We are, we think, in our last meeting on Alberta, and we've saved the best till last.
11:05 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Mr. Merrifield, it's great to have you here today.
We understand you have a few words to share with us, and then the members would be happy to ask you questions.
February 14th, 2013 / 11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Sure.
It will be very short, because I understand what the commission is doing with regard to the boundaries. To put another riding in the northern part of Alberta is absolutely essential.
One of the things we looked at when we saw the first two maps coming out of the commission was that they were seized with the demographics, which is part of the criteria, but it's not all of the criteria. It's the communities of interest, identity, as well as historical patterns of the communities. I believe members of Parliament who live in those communities have much more information and understanding of how that would work.
Northern Alberta MPs got together and asked how they would meet the criteria for the commission and yet still meet the other criteria, which are historical patterns and communities of interest, and that's the map that is being proposed. It does change Yellowhead a little bit from theirs. The largest part of it is that there is a natural boundary between our riding and the north, or, let's say, the north part of Yellowhead, which would be the Whitecourt-Barrhead area and to the north. There's about 200 kilometres of bush, which is a natural break.
There are two communities in that, or actually three, if you want to look at the northern part of Yellowhead, which would be Grande Cache, Fox Creek, and Swan Hills. When talking to those communities there is a reasonable argument that can be made as to whether those communities could go north or south, because they do go both ways. To get the numbers, moving those into the north would be functional and would meet all the criteria. When you get down into Whitecourt, Barrhead, and Westlock, which are larger communities, they certainly don't go north. Their historical patterns are always south or east, and it would really go against the other criteria of the commission. Not only that, in the original map their populations are so large in those areas that they would dominate that riding. I believe it would be unfair for the northern area because then their representation would be weak.
If you look at the geographic size of that riding—I don't know if everyone around the table here can capture just how large that is. You're talking about 15 hours going from one end of the riding to the other, at 120 kilometres an hour, in a car; that would be on a good day, if the weather is good. There's no airport, really, other than in Peace River, which doesn't have commercial flights, just to give you an idea of the dynamics of that riding.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Are we anywhere close to where you can tell us where we're talking about here?
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Yes, it's the northern part of Yellowhead. I don't know if you can see it up there better than the one that I handed out. If you have the map that was handed out here, this one—
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Yes. It's the same one that Mr. Warkentin and Mr. Jean were using the other day.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Yes, that's right. I think it actually demonstrates it better.
You can see Fox Creek, Swan Hills, and Grande Cache are on the northern side of Yellowhead. But all three of those communities are in the north. They're either in the Grande Prairie riding or the Peace River riding. There is a natural break of a couple of hundred kilometres of bush, between Whitecourt and what is called Greenview on this map and Barrhead and into the Swan Hills, north Slave Lake area. There are the small communities. Fox Creek and Swan Hills are very small communities, about 2,000 people, but they could go north.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
They should go north. They would probably argue that they would like to stay south, but there is good rationale because they go north and south as far as their historical patterns and their identity. They could certainly go north to get the extra numbers, because I understand the commission and their problem with trying to get the numbers north.
The map you have there now with your names on it is what the commission is proposing.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
This is currently the last map from the Alberta redistribution commission.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
That's right. Once you have the names up there, it's easier for me to identify exactly what's going on.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I'm suggesting that Whitecourt, Barrhead, and Westlock be in southern ridings.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
That's right. Barrhead and Whitecourt should be in Yellowhead.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
So then Peace River and Westlock...the line would maybe go more straight across.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
The line could follow that river and go between Fox Creek and Whitecourt and just north of Barrhead.
11:10 a.m.
An hon. member
Have you been drinking, Rob?
11:10 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
11:10 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I've talked to the mayor in the community of Grande Cache; they love it in Yellowhead, but they certainly understand they could go north, and they're quite comfortable with that. Fox Creek....
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Let's take them one at a time. Grande Cache would go into the new Grande Prairie riding.