Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, fellow Albertans, for being here today.
Mr. Chahal, I'm going to read from the commission report:
The Commission received...representations...urging it to keep the northeast sector of Calgary together in two electoral districts, Calgary Skyview and the renamed Calgary East, consisting of closely connected communities with shared interests and priorities. Some argued that the Commission should base the electoral districts on the City of Calgary municipal wards, of which there are 14. However, the Commission had only 11 electoral districts with which to work, making compromise inevitable. The Commission had proposed three electoral districts for the northeast.... The two electoral districts recommended by the groups would be located east of Deerfoot Trail—
Interestingly, it's not on the Conservative side of Deerfoot Trail, in the west.
—north of Glenmore Trail...and bounded by Calgary's eastern and northern...limits.... However, the recommended changes could not be accomplished without making substantial alterations to the boundaries of many other electoral districts in Calgary.... For these reasons, the Commission did not accept the groups' recommendations.
However, the Commission has made some modifications in response to the groups' concerns. It has [as you mentioned] added the Calgary International Airport, an important economic hub with close ties to adjacent communities, to the Calgary McKnight...district. It has also modified the boundary between the Calgary Skyview and the Calgary McKnight electoral districts by adding more of the densely populated—
What I'm hearing is that you went to the commission with a proposal. They rejected the proposal. The changed information, as Ms. Sahota indicated, is now information you would like to change again, in this second iteration. I see that the electoral commission listened to your requests, but it is not responding to them, perhaps, the way you would have hoped. It is new information, but new information provided by the commission.
I also want to address your comments about the 14.3% variance, which, as my colleagues mentioned, is the highest. Two you mentioned, Dartmouth and Kingston and the Islands, are large rural swaths that do not have the flexibility of an urban environment.
Thank you, Madam Chair.