Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here. I appreciate the time you're giving all three of us.
I want to take the opportunity to ensure that the mindset we begin with is one of fairness. Niagara South provides a fair electoral map to you today for the riding's voters. Fairness and balance is what we are seeking.
This is the reason for our presentation: It's supporting the ask of the mayor, as well as the mayor's city council and the community, to keep the city of Thorold whole by adding the city hall, the regional headquarters and the Canada Games Park back into the same riding as the city's population.
Currently, the division between the ridings of Niagara Centre and the St. Catharines largely follows Glendale Avenue in the city of St. Catharines. The border has been moved as part of the realignment process undertaken by they electoral boundaries commission, largely to account for the large electoral size of my friend's riding, which is the riding of Niagara Falls. Western Hill and south St. Catharines, including Brock University, currently exist within the boundaries of my riding of Niagara Centre.
The first draft and initial proposal by the commission would have placed the urban area of Thorold within the expanded riding of Niagara West. In this initial proposal, the new boundary between Niagara West and St. Catharines would have followed the municipal boundary between the city of St. Catharines and the neighbouring community of the city of Thorold.
The latest draft proposal was updated to reflect input from the community, with Thorold—which is, by the way, the eighth fastest-growing city in Canada—continuing to belong to the new riding of Niagara South. However, a bump was introduced along the northern municipal boundary, as you can see on your map. The bump removed the Canada Games Park, which is presently on the grounds of Brock University. It also removed the Niagara region headquarters and Thorold's city hall from the Niagara South riding. These are all located within the city of Thorold.
After speaking with the mayor of Thorold, I know his preference on behalf of the community is to maintain the existing northern boundary between the city of St. Catharines and his city of Thorold to ensure that his community is whole and that it is represented with continuity by its member of Parliament. This is consistent, I might add, with all four ridings in Niagara. There is no logical reason to gerrymander the north boundary separating the city of St. Catharines and the city of Thorold. Once again, all ridings in Niagara remain within their municipal boundaries.
In conclusion, we support the mayor and the City of Thorold's request that Thorold be made whole and the ridings' dividing line be placed consistent with all four ridings within the region of Niagara where the municipal boundaries currently exist. In this case, between the city of St. Catharines and the city of Thorold, it is along St. David's Road, which becomes Sir Isaac Brock Way as it travels to the west of the roadway.
Thank you, Madam Chair.