Now that we've started to disregard the Standing Orders, let's continue.
This is interesting since we have a little time and it's worth it to use Mr. Mayrand's knowledge while he's here. At the same time, it gives the committee a chance to discuss the subject. I was talking about this problem with Mr. Lukiwski earlier.
I agree with Mr. Guimond; a major study has been conducted. As I was saying, we mustn't do any work for nothing, without knowing whether the government is ready to move the bill forward. We've conducted a major study on this; we've worked months and months, but we have to remember the reason for this study.
In the last commission, it was the first time in Canada that this kind of case wound up in court, and the court decided. For example, in the riding of Acadie—Bathurst—those who were here may remember it—Elections Canada had taken a group of francophone voters from the Acadie—Bathurst region and transferred them to the Miramichi region. The people protested loudly; it was incredible. There were demonstrations; postcards were sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons. He answered that he did not work at Elections Canada. There were all kinds of things. The case went to court and the court ruled that there had been a violation on the grounds of a community of interest. The community of interest means something; it isn't just figures. In the way the commission saw it, if there were 80,000 persons in one riding, its neighbour should have roughly the same number. In Elections Canada's view, it's unacceptable for one riding to have 86,000 persons and another 52,000. So the decision was made to take those people and throw them into another riding. That's when the court said that there was no community of interest between the two.
I'm going to come back to what I was saying. We conducted a study on the subject and submitted recommendations. That's one thing, Mr. Chairman, that I would like us to consider again because there was a report in the House. We could add it to the committee's work or, in the steering committee, we could consider examining it as part of future business. We should start studying that in advance. Mr. Mayrand says that new figures will be published in 2010 and 2011. So this is a project we should undertake now to make sure we have regulations. Things didn't go well at that time. All the political parties were unanimous on those recommendations.