Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 5th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Armstrong, very quickly, and we'll finish off.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Doesn't the existing riding of Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam have four different communities with four different mayors and a similar body of water between them, but people can get back and forth there? Is there a different transit there or something, or is that just as easy?

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

No, what happens with the communities of Belcarra, Ioco, and Anmore is they shop in Port Moody, so they tie directly in. There is a community of interest between Port Moody and those three smaller areas.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

There is an enterprise area in that riding—

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

Absolutely, and for institutions, for schools, etc. And just in terms of the information, the commission's comments prior to the public hearings, we should make that available to the committee, so we'll pass that on to you.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Please.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

Gentlemen, thank you for coming today and for being so prepared and able to share your information with us. Thank you for being here.

We'll suspend just for a minute while we put our next panel in place. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I call the meeting back to order, please.

Mr. Warawa, it's great to have you here today. You got to watch a little bit of the end of the last segment and you've seen what it's like.

Many members of Parliament never have the chance to sit at that end of the table and be a witness at a committee, so we'll try to be as hard on you as we can be today.

You'll have five minutes to start, to give us a summary of what it is you're here to present today, and then the members will ask you questions.

Go ahead.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the members of the PROC committee. It's a real honour to be here and an opportunity to present to you an objection to the report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia.

Would you, please, refer to the map. I believe it has been passed out to you. I've provided it through the clerk's office.

The commission has proposed that the existing riding known as Langley be divided up, creating the loss of community interest and the loss of community identity.

I'm honoured to present to you the request of my community. This is where this originated. There was a lot of consultation. I agree with what they have said.

The federal riding of Langley has two Langleys in it, the City of Langley and the Township of Langley. They have a long history of working together as one community.

In 2003 they both worked together as a community, as councils, as the chamber, to see the establishment of a new federal riding called Langley, in time for the 2004 election. I was elected in 2004 and have been honoured to represent the community since then.

The community unanimously supports keeping our community together, and has presented numerous times that as a community our first choice is to continue using the existing riding boundaries. This was proposed to the commission by both mayors, councils, and the Langley Chamber of Commerce.

Our community has acknowledged that if the commission would not support using the existing riding boundaries, and it would be right at the extreme of the population quotient, then we strongly suggest that the commission use the Township of Langley municipal boundaries and call the new riding Langley—Aldergrove, not Fort Langley—Aldergrove.

This request was also made to the commission as their second choice, if we couldn't keep it together, when both mayors and the chamber made their presentations. This continues to be the request of the community.

The commission's first and second map proposals.... It proposes that both important parts of the community from the Township of Langley be removed, creating the loss of community of interest and the loss of community of identity.

By recommending that the commission put 35 polls of the Willoughby area back into the Township of Langley, you would maintain the community of interest and community identity, and both ridings would be within the electoral quotient variant.

It's important that I again request that the new riding use the Township of Langley municipal boundaries and that the riding be called Langley—Aldergrove . The commission's proposals—both of them—is that the riding be called Fort Langley—Aldergrove. That name does not properly represent the riding or the wishes of the community.

Fort Langley is an important part of the riding, but a very small part of it. The riding predominantly is Langley. So Langley—Aldergrove is the requested name.

We also request that the proposed riding of Cloverdale—Langley be called Cloverdale—West Langley, because it's such a small part of Langley. The name Cloverdale—West Langley would better represent the makeup of the riding and the wishes of the constituents.

I have consulted with my community and my colleagues. I have support for what I am proposing and requesting today.

I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Great. Thank you.

Mr. Lukiwski, would you like to start us off for five minutes.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mark, for being here.

I want to get something clear in my mind. Mark, are you recommending both name changes and boundary changes? The last part of your presentation seemed to concentrate mainly on the name.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I'm sorry. I was trying to listen to you, and I got translation in French. I'm changing the station back to English now.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

The question was, are you proposing both some boundary changes and name changes, or are you mainly suggesting just name changes?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I'm requesting both. If PROC disagrees, then the very minimum is to have the communities represented by name change.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

On the boundaries proposed by the commission, on the new boundaries they call Fort Langley—Aldergrove and Cloverdale—Langley, if those two boundaries were to come into effect, what would the populations in each of these two ridings be, and what variance would they have to the provincial average?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

The targeted provincial average is 104,000 approximately. What is being proposed for Cloverdale—Langley is 108,519. That's for Cloverdale and, we hope, west Langley. For Fort Langley—Aldergrove it is 94,883, so it is under.

If you put back the 35 polls in Willoughby, which they have taken out of Langley, you would then in Cloverdale—Langley go from 108,000 down to 88,000. So with a 25% variance off the 104,000, you could go from 130,000 down to 78,000. So at 88,000 you are still 10,000 more than that variant.

Langley—Aldergrove has a population, proposed, of 94,883. By putting the Langley ridings back into Langley, it would go up to 115,883, with a maximum of 130,000, so you're still well within the variance.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I'm doing rough mental math here. It would appear the current ridings as proposed by the commission would be within the variance and actually be a little closer to the provincial average than what you may be suggesting with your proposed changes. Would that be an accurate reflection?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

That is accurate, but....

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

It doesn't take into account a lot of the other considerations. I'm just wondering about the population side.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Exactly.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Do the changes you are recommending affect any other ridings besides these two? In other words, do you have neighbouring ridings that would be affected by the boundary changes you're suggesting, or only these two?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

It's only these two.

What the community has proposed, which I agree with, is that we use the Township of Langley municipal boundaries. The commission has taken out Willoughby and added west Abbotsford.

The community would like to have west Abbotsford put back into Abbotsford, but that would create a domino effect to my east, so I'm not proposing that. I'm proposing that the only change be to my west, which would be Cloverdale—West Langley. That would be the only impact. We would still be within the population quotient variant, and that would be the only domino effect.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Okay.

You mentioned you had been making this representation on behalf of the community that had been suggesting some of the changes you have proposed here.

Did you make a proposal yourself at the commission level?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

No, I did not. We were well represented as a community. Both councils and the chamber made the presentation. I waited until this opportunity.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Were the arguments you presented to us today the same arguments that were presented to the commissioners at the public hearings?