Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 19th, 2013

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

It does. Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Lunney.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Chair, in my written proposal, I actually describe the southern border.

The northern one is quite simple. It simply follows the outline of the current municipal boundary for the City of Courtenay, and Nanaimo—Alberni could still keep its configuration. It would expand somewhat to the north, taking in the outlying communities of Courtenay. For those, it would be a displacement from their traditional representation, from a huge distortion of current representation and natural governance at the municipal and regional levels, but it would minimize that impact significantly, with the proposal recommended.

I have specified in point four the southern boundary of Nanaimo—Alberni with the roads, following Rutherford to Hammond Bay Road, following Hammond Bay Road, etc., to a natural boundary. It's all described there.

With the tools Elections Canada has, you could probably come up with the exact numbers. I would hope they have better tools available to them than perhaps we did in trying to determine the exact population numbers. That boundary could be adjusted a little bit, by a block or two, in order to accommodate numbers, if that were required.

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

Do I have enough time for one last thing?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Yes.

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

Very briefly, John, you probably don't remember this, but back in 2005 when I was in the process of trying to find out best practices for running riding offices—I did this in my first few years as an MP—I visited a number of ridings. I went to yours, and it was a heck of a drive up the island, because I was at a conference in Victoria. What I recall about that and what I realized at that time was while it didn't look central to your riding on a map, that riding office was the ideal spot for being central in terms of the various spokes coming into a hub, and the hub is where your office is currently located.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

I drove for eight hours on Friday to get to the northern three communities in my riding. That's eight hours of driving, plus three community visits. It's a rather lengthy day, but at least I know I can do it, because I'm not reliant on a ferry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much. Your time is up.

Mr. Scott, you have five minutes.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, everybody, for appearing.

It may well be that the specific proposal to change Nanaimo back won't necessarily create any domino effect south. I understand you're suggesting that it just takes away population from Jean Crowder's riding. It takes her down to 105,000, or something like that.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Nanaimo—Cowichan, as it's currently configured, is going to lose a big chunk of population as we're reducing, so all of Nanaimo would have a significant change.

I haven't talked to Jean about what her intentions would be in terms of running, but since her office and the main focus of, shall we say, her activities have been in the Duncan area, I'm sure she would be more likely to stay in that Cowichan—Malahat—Langford riding. I'm sure our colleagues would check. You could check with your own colleague.

The adjustment would be in the area that we're both being displaced from. It would just be a modest adjustment on that boundary, which wouldn't impact her in any significant way.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I have a more specific question. In terms of the map you've given us, how much population does that take back from the commission's proposal to put into your riding?

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Currently, as I said, my riding is a huge distortion. Although it doesn't look big on the map—

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I need a number. I'm asking for a number.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

The proposal to Courtenay—Alberni would remove 50,000 people on the southern part of my riding. What I would be adding back is probably about 10,000 of those.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Okay. That's kind of what I—

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I'm sorry. It might be closer to 15,000, because there are about 5,000 in the Lantzville area, so it's about 15,000. Then, of course, in the Courtenay part, about 25,000 people would remain with Vancouver Island North. That minimizes the number of people displaced from the traditional representation.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

That was the clarity I was looking for, which is the 10,000 to 15,000. It's possible the domino effect will stop, because you just take some population from what is the new riding. That's just clarifying.

My real concern is on the mainland. I know we don't have the maps, but is this Mark Strahl's riding?

My sense is that the proposals you're loosely putting mean that, going back to old configurations, somewhere along the line he would reach, if he were to run here, all the way up to Pemberton.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

He currently represents—

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

The point is that in relation to the commission's proposal, that's a huge change. My concern, simply to put it on the record, is that I would need to see something like what the Alberta MPs did. I would like to see how it is that all of this fits together. Otherwise I don't think we have any expectation of making a reasonable request to the commission to start playing all around the Lower Mainland in order to accommodate these.... I understand these problems. They are reasonable concerns that you have, but the knock-on effect on the mainland is huge in relation to the commission's proposal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Cullen, you wanted a little bit of time. Take the rest of Mr. Scott's.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I wanted to follow up. The proposal would be that Chilliwack—Hope would revert to its older configuration and then have Pemberton and maybe some other parts included. What then is the implication on the Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon riding? That would take out a big chunk of that riding.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Well, it's currently under the quotient by quite a bit, so I'm suggesting that it would take Pemberton and Whistler—

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Are you talking about for Chilliwack?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

—into Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You're not suggesting that go into Chilliwack.