When they came to Timmins, the commission came up to me and asked if I had suggestions. I knew they were looking to increase our population. As I said, 44 other ridings have a smaller population than mine. I offered them, for example, the Temiskaming Shores region, which would add 13,000 people. I offered to take in the Ring of Fire region, which is extremely isolated, but we already represent some of those communities.
I was shocked that the whole agricultural district was taken apart and moved, and we had no involvement in that. Nobody was aware of that. They'd asked for suggestions on how we'd work with them, and we gave them suggestions, again based on communities of interest, particularly on the francophone and agricultural sectors that are growing on Highway 11. Then we get this back and we were told this is the final plan.
I have to go back to the farm communities now and say, “Guess what, Matheson, Val Gagné and Cochrane. You're all connected to Temiskaming, but you guys are now in different electoral districts.” They'll say, “Where did that come from?”