Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 7th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Sure.

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

Which of these is their proposal? They're both Elections Canada maps. Is one the first round and one the second round?

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

No, this is the same map.

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

No, it's not. They're different.

Look here. They moved out of Fort McMurray, Cold Lake, into Lakeland—this area right here. It's not the same map at all.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

This has been cut off here.

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

So which one is their current map?

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

This is their current map.

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

This one's the current map. What's that? Is that the first round, maybe?

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

No.

I think there's some difficulty with these two maps. I believe that they are attempting to propose the same thing. Unfortunately, Elections Canada would be reflecting the polls, and therefore wouldn't necessarily adhere exactly to the lines that this one does, but I believe that these are trying to reflect the same proposal, which is the current proposal. The first proposal by the commission was somewhat different from either of these.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

It's no longer on the table, so that's not an issue.

You're both suggesting, if I can help clarify, a change to some municipal boundaries that make more sense. Is that correct in both cases?

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I believe you'll find that these proposals adhere more closely to municipal boundaries.

In the case of Grande Prairie, it would almost completely adhere to municipal boundaries. In terms of what would be Peace River, it is very close, and perhaps Brian can speak to Fort McMurray. I think the proposal is a better reflection of municipal boundaries.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Reid, you're still going.

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

Thank you.

You can see why we're confused.

I'll leave all that stuff aside. I'm going to have to ask that we have Elections Canada help us out or something, to sort this all out.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We'd better solve that question now, then.

The chair remembers what the problem was.

We're not using your time on this, by the way.

We could have Elections Canada to do it, but remember its program is in only one language at a time. We need unanimous consent to have Elections Canada here to do that on-time mapping, and we didn't give that when we first asked that question. We thought, well, we would see what happens, because then we could do it in our room after doing the research.

If you're suggesting that's the case, and we'd like them at our meeting each time with the ability to draw a line or show us what the members are talking about, I need unanimous consent from the committee to do it in one language at a time.

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

I have a question, Chair.

The suggestion is to have the program up on a screen, with the lines moving. I've been to many presentations here where there were two laptops, each language to a screen, each screen in a language. Is that not technically possible? Really, this is 2013.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Go ahead, Mr. Reid.

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

I'm having the same kind of reaction. It's not just that I would have thought it was technical feasible, but it was technically feasible 10 years ago. I'm sure there's a way of doing it now.

The other thing I want to point out is that these are mostly going to be place names. Peace River is English, but it's also a proper name, so it's not really not French. Do you know what I mean?

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

There's not going to be a lot of text on the screen, I suppose.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Go ahead, Madame Turmel.

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

That's what I want to clarify. If it's in only one language, for Quebec, will it be in French?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

If that's what the committee would wish, your chair is always flexible.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

All the maps will be in French.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay, I understand the technology has just improved and is now far better than we thought.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Something was just newly invented, probably by a great Canadian company, and we would be able to do side-by-side computers and alternate things. It appears we're beyond our problem here now, so at the next meeting, that's exactly where we will be.

We're now back to your time, Mr. Reid. Go ahead.