Sure, why not?
Thank you very much, Chairman.
I am presenting to you a survey we did in my riding. We've already forwarded this to the clerk.
I basically asked people to respond very specifically to the questions that the commission had put forward concerning whether or not they would support the riding changes and whether or not they should remain as is.
As you can see, to the questions that were put there are well over 1,200 responses that said the riding boundaries, based on the questions that the commission asked, should remain exactly the same, and I have 17 responses from those who believe that the riding boundaries should change.
So, when you go out to the people of the city of St. Catharines, when you talk to those folks regarding the Niagara region and how it should be set up, there is strong evidence to show, from the people themselves, that the first choice would be to leave the boundaries exactly the way they are and that the second choice would be to go with the commission's first iteration.
We're a little different down in Niagara. We've now had three iterations from the commission. We believe—Mr. Allison, Mr. Nicholson, and I—that the original boundary changes, if we were going to make them, really put Niagara in a very strong position. They levelled the playing field concerning what the numbers were going to be for each of the ridings. They actually brought in the Niagara region.
Prior to and as of today, we have a piece of Hamilton that is to be considered as inside the Niagara region, as far as the ridings go. The original changes would have split the Niagara region up equally into four; we're now in a position whereby Dean Allison would have approximately 84,000 constituents and Rob Nicholson, one riding over from him, would have more than 126,000 constituents. So there is a complete imbalance in terms of positioning; there is a complete imbalance in terms of numbers, which I think the commission addressed in its first iteration; it actually put us in a strong position.
Let me conclude, Mr. Chairman, that the rationale makes it clear that communities of interest should in fact be considered as communities in moving forward. We obviously have lots of objections to the types of changes being suggested and would rather keep ourselves as whole as possible—if not as originally, then at least as in the first iteration.
The city council of St. Catharines overwhelmingly supported the first iteration of boundary changes. Minister Jim Bradley, the Liberal member of the provincial parliament endorsed the original changes. I know that they change the riding of Welland, and I'm sure Mr. Allen is going to speak to that. But when you look at it from an overall perspective, it really does speak to the fact that we need to have four ridings that are situated within the Niagara region, four ridings that are actually of the same approximate size and that benefit the communities the most.
I'll leave it there, Mr. Chairman, and will respond, obviously, to any questions that anyone may have.