Good afternoon.
Thank you for welcoming me here to the committee as a witness.
I'm from the second most beautiful riding in Canada. Of course first place goes to the one you represent.
On the matter of expanding the area by adding three municipalities, I think that my colleague Luc Berthold and hon. minister Bibeau clearly said that these three municipalities have much stronger affinities with their region.
The reason why I've been given these three municipalities is that there is a population shortfall in the riding I represent. The three municipalities together have a population of 2,000. When the members of the commission considered the matter, they did not factor in the latest data for the riding. For example, over the past six months, six major battery production plants have been announced for the City of Bécancour. Last week, Ford made an announcement, and about six months ago, there was an annpuncement from General Motors.
Six similar projects have been announced. They will be worth over $500 million. They will be built on an area equal to three football fields placed end to end. These large factories will attract lots of people to the Bécancour region. What's more, only last week it was decided to rezone 500 building lots to allow for the rapid construction of housing for the people who will be working at these plants.
The Nicolet region, in the centre of the riding, is experiencing the largest residential development in its history. In the Saurel region there are currently three construction projects under way for residential buildings: one for 763 units, a second for 400 units and a third for 466 units. Not only that but three other projects are awaiting authorization. This would mean that within four or five months, in Saurel alone, there will be at least 2,200 more people living in these units, with two persons per unit.
This means that the population deficit of approximately 2,000 people mentioned in the commission's report will have been completely dealt with in Saurel, partly offset in Nicolet and largely offset in Bécancour. Within three years, there will be at least 5,000 more workers in the riding. I therefore fully agree that these three municipalities, which have no affinity with the riding I represent, should remain in the riding represented by Mr. Berthold. I trust that the members of the commission will understand.
The big problem will no doubt be in with the name change. For years, the riding has been identified by its three RCMs: Bécancour, Nicolet and Saurel. However, although there was nothing said about it during the testimony, when the initial meetings were being held and even when the final report was being prepared, it was decided to add the Abenaki community to the name of the riding. We are in agreement with that, of course, but there are two such communities: Odanak and Wôlinak.
It was therefore proposed that the City of Nicolet be replaced by Odanak. Nicolet has existed for 350 years—we celebrated this last year—and it is older than Canada. So the city has been there for a long time.
The Odanak community does not agree because it pointed out that there is also Wôlinak. I therefore wrote to the grand Council of the Wabanaki nation, Which represents both communities. I have given you a copy of the letter. It says that the Abenaki people would like to add their name to the riding without removing the name "Nicolet".
Every time I was in contact with the commissioner, Mr. Chamberland, he repeated that Odanak was going to be added. There was never any intent to remove Nicolet. This whole story almost led to a revolt in the riding. If you could only see the number of letters—I didn't send you all of them—from the people in the municipalities who wrote me in support of keeping Nicolet in the name of the riding.
Let's get back to the word "Abenaki", the name of the nation. The Abenaki people want that name added to the riding's name, but in the Abenaki language. That would mean spelling it : "Alnôbak" or "Aln8bak", making the name of the riding "Alnôbak—Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel" or "Aln8bak—Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel".