Thank you for your question.
If I may, I'll answer you in English.
The criteria are laid out in the legislation. Population equity is one of the criteria. The legislation permits a 25% variance. It seems that the commission made a decision to pursue a smaller rate of variance. You can exceed 25% in extraordinary circumstances. I would suggest Mr. Battiste's submissions indicate extraordinary circumstances to include indigenous peoples in the process.
The change to my constituency is from a variance of 16 point something per cent to 13 point something per cent, not a meaningful change. Where they failed, in my view, is on those other issues: serviceability of ridings and communities of interest. What I'm very concerned about is that there's very little commonality between the rural issues in the small towns and rural communities that I represent today—around the fishery, around agriculture, around the mining sector and around small town needs—and those of suburban Halifax. They are beautiful communities, but they have very different economies and different needs.
By engaging people in the process to understand what the needs of communities are and to ensure that a member of Parliament's time will be deployed in a way that will effectively serve their interests, I think we could have come up with a much better and more successful map that accommodated feedback from first nations communities, from African Nova Scotian communities and from the plethora of municipalities that are outraged at the proposal.
I have taken up too much of my time, so I'll now share it with Mr. Battiste.