Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'll get right to it. There are a few things that are unprecedented. At no other time in Saskatchewan's history have so many individuals become engaged in a federal electoral boundaries process, and there has never been a dissenting report from a member of the federal electoral boundaries commissions, as you well know.
It is reported that 75% opposed the commission's proposed boundaries and it will be unfortunate if the opinion of so many is disregarded. I would be disappointed to learn that. In addition to the petitions, I would like to include postcards. As a member of Parliament this is an acceptable form of communication between MPs and constituents who wish to voice their concerns on many issues.
Constituents in communities like my own, Kenaston, less than an hour outside of Saskatoon, did mail-in cards and petitions opposing boundaries. Upon the release of the final report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, constituents who made presentations to the commission were still very concerned. They felt their voices were not heard and the commission gave no consideration to constituents who did not agree with the commission's urban-only concept. You can read the transcripts to understand why presenters found the commission unwilling to understand the opposition that we proposed to the urban-only concept.
I have with me today letters that I have received from constituents who want to reiterate the concerns that they presented to the commission and I will present them in both official languages at the end of my presentation.
In an April 9, 2013, article in The Globe and Mail, Justice Mills refused to speculate about whether early submissions opposed to urban-only ridings would have changed the commission's initial position to implement urban-only ridings, and he indicated that it was:
...our view of the demographics, the population trends, immigration to Saskatchewan, of the size and growth in the cities, and a whole raft of things that involved communities of interest....
Clearly, communities—