Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 5th, 2013

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

So there are really three ridings involved.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

There are three that are primarily impacted.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

For the ones that are not primarily impacted, are we talking about a significant percentage? Would there be under a few thousand who would be affected?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

The primary, I guess, would be the North Vancouver—North Burnaby riding. In a sense there will be no incumbent for that new riding, as there is no incumbent for Port Moody—Burquitlam. That would be the riding, I guess, that would be impacted by that. As I say, certainly the public on both sides of Burrard Inlet have been pretty clear.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

This first map is the one you're talking about ideally.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

The first map is the overall reconfiguration of the three existing ridings and the creation of a fourth, rather than North Vancouver—North Burnaby.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

But this is the one you're suggesting that we adopt.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Yes, and then each of the other maps would be the proposed configuration so we would keep within the riding quotients for British Columbia for each of the three existing ridings and the fourth riding that would take the place of North Vancouver—North Burnaby.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you. You're right on time.

Mr. Reid, go ahead for five minutes, please.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have your map here. Unfortunately, we don't have it up there.

There are four ridings. Starting at the top and going clockwise, the one that is the north-most, at 12 o'clock, is Port Moody—Burquitlam. What are you calling the one that is at 3 o'clock, which includes Douglas Island?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

It's New Westminster—Coquitlam....

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Perhaps I cpi;f ask you to go around them all, just so I'm clear on this.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Okay.

It would be a reconfiguration of the existing New Westminster—Coquitlam riding, with the northern part of Coquitlam being added to Port Moody—Burquitlam, the proposed riding to replace North Vancouver—North Burnaby.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Right. Then continuing clockwise, the next one is....

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

It is Burnaby—New Westminster, which is the riding I represent.

But the Burnaby portion, the Burquitlam portion, would go to the proposed Port Moody—Burquitlam riding.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Right. And then the last one is....

It's just that what is happening here, as we've been discussing it, is that I've been trying to figure out which one is which. It's not your fault, it's just....

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

No, no, that's quite all right.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

So the last one is....

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

It is Burnaby—Douglas, and it would take the Burquitlam portion of Burnaby—Douglas, which is the portion, if you go to Burnaby...which is a delightful place to go. We encourage you to come. In fact, this committee could make a trip there, if you like.

So you have Burnaby Mountain, and below Burnaby Mountain is the flat area, which is the Burquitlam area. Everything below Burnaby Mountain, which is where the SFU campus would be, would be included in Port Moody—Burquitlam.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay.

Actually, seeing as we've wound up there, I'll ask my next question about a little area there. Obviously, I'm aware that the topography justifies some changes that might not be intuitive to one looking at it from the outside, but you have a riding with a sort of peninsula jutting into another. Burnaby—Douglas juts into....

For Westridge, I can see the logic of connecting that either south or west with equal ease. Then there's this long area. Is there a population at all along Highway 7A, Barnet Road, or is that unpopulated?

[Kennedy Stewart, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

It's not populated.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

It's not populated, so it doesn't really matter, from a population point of view, where it's included.

[Kennedy Stewart, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

I can tell you the logic behind that L-shape. They're the primary transportation corridors.

Really, if you start in the top left corner, one primary transportation corridor, Willingdon Avenue, runs north-south. The other one is Hastings Street, which runs east-west.

That's why in our proposal that L-shape kind of makes sense, because that's how people travel.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay.

Is there either a bridge or some kind of transportation link between the Coquihalla up there and the...or do you have to go all the way around the entire inlet to get from...?

Let's say I'm at “B”, as in Barnet, and I want to go to where the “C” is, on the Coquihalla. I'm not sure I'd want to do that, actually, because it looks like it's not very heavily populated, but do I have to go all the way around?