Evidence of meeting #63 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was commission.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I guess the commission tried to stay within the range of 10%, rather than 25%. All of them tried to do that.
So you will need to come up with a very strong argument to go beyond the 10%. Your argument is that this community must stay together and there's no other way to do the math than to come up with this magnitude between 87 and 105.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
The other way would be to put part of the west Abbotsford-Aldergrove area back into the Abbotsford area. I do not have the numbers for the Abbotsford area, so I'm not sure if they are involved, where they are. That would be one way of reducing that.
It's very important to the community that we have the community interest aspect of it, that cultural aspect. By removing that from Langley, it will have a cultural impact.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Would it be possible for the colleague to work on this scenario and to come—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I have Abbotsford here. It would be under the latest from the commission: 96,819 and 7.58% below quotient now.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
In no scenario. The way Abbotsford is currently drawn, it is 96,819.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Mr. Warawa asked about taking some from Abbotsford to make up the population in Langley—Aldergrove. But Abbotsford itself is already under.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
It's already low. I think you will have a real problem convincing the commission to do that. Your scenario would not work as well.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
I was trying to avoid a domino effect on the west and east, but if we wanted to be....
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
This is why the recommendation to the commission right from the get-go was that we use the Township of Langley municipal boundaries as the riding boundaries, and have Langley city go over to Cloverdale. The cultural fit is much better, both for Abbotsford and Langley, and for Cloverdale.
But in both proposals the commission has taken portions of Langley out, which is a concern to the community. That's why I am before you today. If anything, most important is that the names properly represent, and I've shared with you the names.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
The other riding has no MP. It is a new riding.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I just wanted to make sure. You haven't discussed this with the other colleague.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Thank you, Mr. Dion.
Mr. Reid.
I'm going to go down to about four minutes. We do have to get to the other report today too.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
I think in all fairness, when we say the place has no MPs, that's not true. Every chunk of territory in Canada is represented by someone. It's just that when these areas expand, what we're really saying is that we anticipate that they will not be—
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
Yes, but I think Mr. Warawa can speak with equal confidence about all parts of these ridings, except the parts that came in from Fleetwood—Port Kells and South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale.
It doesn't show it on these maps. I wanted to ask, in these two ridings that you're talking about, the ridings of Fort Langley—Aldergrove, Langley—Cloverdale, what are the municipal boundaries? Is it all just part of one municipality or are there several municipalities in there?
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
The municipal boundaries are actually what were used in 2003. Here on the map is the boundary for Langley, and you can see it over here. This is Langley, and this is the municipal boundary for Langley and for Abbotsford.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
So on the west this is all Surrey. What's being proposed here is this riding will have Langley municipal government, and with this municipal boundary here, it will now be Langley and Abbotsford, and this is all Surrey in here.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
So basically the new riding that they are calling Fort Langley—Aldergrove at this point contains parts of two municipalities.