Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to come forward today and speak to the proposed boundaries for northeastern Ontario.
As you may be aware, when this process started last year the chief concern of the majority of northern Ontarians was keeping 10 federal ridings in the north. Northern Ontario represents 87% of Ontario's land area. So although the population of the ridings in the region is below the national average, it is important to keep 10 ridings in order to ensure effective representation.
I will use my own riding of Sudbury as an example of why this is so important. Although Sudbury is the largest city in northern Ontario, it has no passport office, and recently the CIC office in Sudbury was closed. This means that my office acts as a de facto immigration office and processes thousands of passport applications each year. So MPs in northern Ontario form a vital link between Canadians and the federal government, regardless of which party we represent.
I was therefore very happy that the proposal released by the Ontario commission in the fall of 2012 took this into account and kept 10 ridings in northern Ontario. However, there were a number of concerns with where the riding boundaries had been placed in the initial proposal, particularly in northeastern Ontario.
For example, the removal of Lively, Whitefish, and Naughton from the Sudbury riding did not reflect the fact that these communities are part of the city of Greater Sudbury, and it would have isolated them from the rest of the proposed Algoma—Manitoulin—Killarney riding.
The boundary between Timmins—Cochrane—James Bay and Nickel Belt—Timiskaming would have created an artificial divide between a community of interest of farmers and people associated with agriculture. The ridings of Timmins—Cochrane—James Bay and Nickel Belt—Timiskaming would have become larger both in terms of geography and population than the large ridings they replaced, making them almost unserviceable.
The removal of the Kapuskasing-Hearst region from the riding of Algoma—Manitoulin—Killarney would have placed it in a riding in which it had no political or community history.
The commission held public hearings in Sudbury, New Liskeard, North Bay, as well as Kenora and Thunder Bay. MPs from those areas all attended. The commission also offered a second round of public meetings in Sault Ste Marie to look at other options, and I would like to thank the commission for doing so. I also note that Mr. Hayes did not appear at any of these public hearings, even when changes were suggested to the rural region that is part of the Algoma provincial riding.
In each of these hearings, in northeastern Ontario it was clear that an overwhelming majority of constituents did not feel that the proposal put forward would provide representation equal to or better than the status quo. We thank the commission for listening to the citizens and mayors of northeastern Ontario regarding the problems that the original proposal would have created for the region.
The final report of the commission corrects the majority of these concerns, and as the report itself states, the final recommendation was made on account of the advice received at those public hearings. The NDP MPs in the region participated in the public hearing process within the guidelines drawn up in the 2004 report by Elections Canada, which lays out the rights of MPs to participate in the public hearing process. These read:
Members of the House of Commons are not by any means excluded from this process of public involvement. Indeed, it is recognized that they will invariably have strong views on both the names and boundaries of the proposed electoral districts. Therefore, members of the House of Commons are not only allowed to appear before a commission at the public hearings, but the legislation also provides the opportunity for them to object to the proposals of any of the boundaries commissions.
Any changes to boundaries in the region will have a significant knock-on effect on all ridings in northern Ontario. Let me repeat that: Any changes to the boundaries in the region of northern Ontario will have cascading effects that will affect the area from White River—north of Lake Superior—to the Quebec boundary. I therefore support the report of the boundary commission and would ask this committee to call for no changes to the boundaries for northern Ontario.
I thank, again, the boundary commission for their excellent work in what can be sometimes a thankless and difficult task, especially when you're looking at northern Ontario. And I thank you all for having me here today.