Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 7th, 2013

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

But there's no public transit from Moncton to your riding office. It's obvious that just for access to the office and access to the MP for people who are of lesser means, this proposal should be accepted, and we should support that.

[Robert Goguen]

To your point, there's Pine Tree mini-home, which has a fairly dense population. It's a mini-home park.

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

I think you can see why all three members of Parliament are supporting this, because it makes geographic sense as well. Also, since New Brunswick is the only bilingual province, it also supports the Acadian community. I think we have to always respect that as well, particularly on the east coast, because we have a very diverse, spread-out Acadian population. I think this supports that population. It also supports access to the MP.

I think they've made a good presentation here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Fantastic.

Mr. Reid, what part of New Brunswick are you from? You're up next.

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

Well, I was going to ask questions, but based on what I've seen so far, I'm just going to pontificate about more stuff.

Actually, what I really want to do is ask numerical questions. You've got the status quo in your current riding, and I'm actually addressing Mr. LeBlanc as much as I am Mr. Goguen here. You've got the ridings proposed in the report, which if you were not to raise anything would be what we'd be stuck with, and then finally you've got the proposal, Mr. Goguen, that you've made and, Mr. LeBlanc, that you agree with.

Under each of those three scenarios—maybe Bob we could start with you—can you just give me what your population is now, what the proposal would make it, and what it would be under your changed proposal, just what those three numbers are?

[Robert Goguen]

As it stands, it's about 98,000. What's proposed in the second version would be 85,595. By bringing in those nine polls, it would be 91,682.

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

Okay.

Dominic, do you know what it would be for your...?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Sure. It's a good question.

I would just note, colleagues, that Robert's riding currently is well above the 25%.

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

That was what I was going to ask.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

At 98,000 he's well above, and has been probably since the year after the last commission report. Even with the request to add these 6,000 or so people, it still brings him down from what he is at today and brings him to within the 25% variance.

But to answer your question, Scott, my riding currently is 78,000, the quotient being 75,000. Under the proposal, if Mr. Goguen's suggestions are not accepted, I'm up to 84,000, so I'm plus 9,000 under their proposal now. If Mr. Goguen's suggestions are accepted by the commission, ultimately I would go back to 78,000, still a bit above the quotient.

I would point out—and I think Mr. Goguen and Monsieur Godin would agree—that one of the big growth areas in southeastern New Brunswick is the city of Dieppe, not necessarily this area, although there would be some growth in this area. But as the migrations from northern New Brunswick move into the south, Dieppe would be one of the areas that would grow a lot, half of which would be in my riding as well. So over time I think I would start to creep back up. This change would probably not have a dramatic effect over the next 10 years. It's not the hot spot of growth.

[Robert Goguen]

Dieppe is one of the fastest-growing cities in all of Canada.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

And Robert and I split that city, so that will continue to....

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Those are all the questions I have and all the speakers I have on my list. I think you've done a great job, all three members. Thank you.

I thank my colleagues—and Dominic also—for helping us with this. I think we've heard from New Brunswick today.

Do we need to go in camera to give direction to our analysts on this report?

[Some hon. members]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

All right. We'll suspend for a few minutes and go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]