Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm very pleased to be with you today.
I want to thank the committee for agreeing to listen to me.
The reason for my objection is very simple. From the outset, however, I would like to say that the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Quebec has done a very good job with regard to Beauce. We went to plead our case in Lévis and to say that we wanted to keep the electoral district of Beauce intact. At the time, they wanted to take eight municipalities from us. The commission very clearly understood the matter and made sure in its report to keep those eight municipalities in the riding of Beauce.
I am here today on behalf of two municipalities that were removed from Beauce following the report: Saint-Robert-Bellarmin and Saint-Ludger. We want those municipalities to be included in the electoral district of Beauce since the central town linking those two towns is Saint-Georges.
These municipalities never had the opportunity to be heard since they were not affected by the commission's proposal in the first version of its report. They issued resolutions when the second version of the Beauce electoral map was made public. They decided that they wanted to remain part of Beauce despite the fact that they are situated in the RCM of Le Granit.
It is important to note that the commission wanted to include those municipalities in my colleague Christian Paradis's riding because they were attached to the same RCM at the provincial level. It should be noted, however, that, historically, the two municipalities have always been considered as part of Beauce and have always negotiated with the Government of Quebec to be part of the RCM of Beauce-Sartigan, which is part of Beauce.
After the latest changes were proposed, the mayors of those two municipalities sent me their resolutions, reaffirming their sense of belonging to Beauce. These people are Beaucerons and proud to be so.
Moreover, the municipality of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon, which is included in Beauce in the latest report, has expressed the wish to be included in Lévis—Lotbinière. The mayor, with whom I spoke last week, sent me a resolution that he had had passed last August stating that the municipality of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon would like to be included in Lévis—Lotbinière and that its residents were very pleased with the service MP Jacques Gourde was giving them. I hope they will be able to continue their productive relationship with their very good member, Jacques Gourde.
That said, I spoke with the two members concerned. First I spoke with Mr. Gourde about the wish of the municipality of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon to be included in the electoral district of Lévis—Lotbinière. I also spoke with MP Christian Paradis about the wish of the municipalities of Saint-Ludger and Saint-Robert-Bellarmin to be included in the electoral district of Beauce. Neither colleague is opposed to those proposals. They are entirely in favour of them.
It must be understood that Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon is a small municipality, which has ties to the central city of Lévis, not to the town of Sainte-Marie. For example, the people of Sainte-Marie and the surrounding municipalities joined forces to create a health coop. Although the municipality of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon is in the same RCM, La Nouvelle-Beauce, it did not take part in the project because the people of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon use the hospital in Lévis. Their ties are therefore with Lévis.
Of course, these changes will have a number of demographic implications. I told you about those consequences. Beauce would lose 4,547 residents, for a total of 107,967. Lévis—Lotbinière would gain 6,545 residents, for a total of 107,870. Note that the commission's target population was 101,322. So these figures are within the 10% variance. Lastly, the electoral district of Mégantic—L'Érable, Christian Paradis's riding, would lose 1,907 residents.
My objection to the proposal is not recent, since they wanted to keep the electoral district of Beauce intact at the time. I am here today to ask that these two municipalities be returned to the riding of Beauce and that the municipality of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon return to Lévis—Lotbinière.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. I am prepared to answer any questions you may have.