Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank the committee members for listening to us today.
As was mentioned, it is very difficult to go from 10 to nine ridings in northern Ontario. In the document, you can see northeastern Ontario on the map. It is not northwestern Ontario; there is a difference. I agree with everything that has been said so far.
I would like to start on a positive note. Concerning Nickel Belt, the commission listened to the people in the Gogama community, for example. They had sent letters asking that this small community remain in Nickel Belt. In addition, in the redistribution, the four municipalities in Sudbury East whose mayors had requested that they remain in Nickel Belt. That's in the submission letter. So those are positive things.
Today I will present three items, which are detailed in the document you received.
First, the Nickel Belt constituency, which was founded in 1952, included the Nickel Centre communities of Wanup, Wahnapitae, Coniston, Garson, Falconbridge and Skead. Essentially, these are rural areas. Last summer, the commission saw fit to attach these rural communities to downtown Sudbury, and that is still what the commission's report says. Once again, the rural area is being mixed with the urban area. I have received letters from city councillors Deb McIntosh and Mike Jakubo, as well as from the new city councillor Natalie Labbée. They all said they wanted these rural communities to remain in Nickel Belt, which is more of a rural riding, rather than being put with the downtown.
An argument was also made that communities of interest and the francophone community should be considered. Under the current proposal, Nickel Belt would go from being 35% francophone to 31%. This is better than last summer's proposal, which would have reduced the percentage to 25%. So the commission was listening, but it didn't do enough to keep the 10 ridings.
I have no objection to adding Espanola and Manitoulin Island to Nickel Belt. The population going from 100,000 to 114,000 is not an issue.
The second point I want to make is about the name of the riding.
Nickel Belt has been the riding name since 1952. It's been 72 years. The riding has changed, so the proposal here is to make Sudbury East Manitoulin—Nickel Belt. It's supported by the Sudbury east and Manitoulin health units, because it has the same boundaries. The municipalities of Sudbury east and SEMA have a letter in the package indicating that the mayors and councils support the name change to better reflect the community.
The last point on the commission here—and you've all heard this—is that it was really devastating for us in northern Ontario to go from 10 to nine seats. We could get into the disenchantment of voters and the rural aspect. It's devastating for us.
When you look at involving more MPs in the process, the commission had a difficult mandate with one additional seat, but I'm asking PROC to really push back on this, because as indicated earlier by Charlie, the next round in northern Ontario will be eight seats. Because of the population of 116,000, it's totally flawed. As indicated by Terry and Viviane, 90% of the geographic area of Ontario is northern Ontario. You could add more monies to a riding that represents 140,000.... We could add more monies for two staff members, but you can't add more money to get more MPs to represent a large area.
I'll leave it at that, and I'll be very happy to answer questions.