Thank you, Madam Chair.
Respected colleagues, I speak to you today both as chair of the Northern Ontario Liberal Caucus and as the Member of Parliament for Sudbury.
On behalf of the northern Ontario Liberal caucus, I would like to express our collective objection to the removal of an electoral district for northern Ontario. This objection is not about politics. Rather, this objection is rooted in advocacy.
Northern Ontario is unique from all other regions in Ontario due largely to its immense land mass. In fact, northern Ontario makes up 87% of Ontario's land mass. Reducing our representation to nine elected officials creates undue hardship and inequitable access to MPs for the people of northern Ontario. This undue hardship will also create greater challenges in attracting young people, especially women, to consider running for Parliament.
Land mass also affects communities of interest. Communities that are several hours apart may not have a common economy or shared issues. The loss of a seat may also have social and economic implications.
Northern Ontario has unique characteristics, such as a large indigenous population, and unique challenges, such as limited access to social services, health care and education. These issues require targeted policies that address the specific needs of the region. Removing a seat from northern Ontario would cut off an essential avenue for the region's voice to be heard.
Going by a numbers-only formula actually creates further voter disparity. It increases inequity and creates prejudice against rural and northern Canadian communities.
We believe the commission understood this inequality by creating two ridings of “extraordinary circumstance”. While the legislative path may be the ultimate manner in which equitable representation can be achieved, we cannot accept that there are no measures the commission can employ.
We have seen precedents that address the issue of land mass. The 1985 Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act provided for the Newfoundland and Labrador commission to deviate from adherence to the quota in order to maintain a manageable geographic size for sparsely populated districts.
In a vast country like ours, where each region has distinctive needs and priorities, representational equality is fundamental. The electoral district model is designed to ensure that citizens from each region are proportionally represented in the House of Commons. Any action that changes the number of seats provided to a region can affect its political representation entirely.
In conclusion, reducing the number of seats in northern Ontario is not the solution to any problem. Instead, it would create problems of its own by reducing the ability of the region's elected representatives to represent the interests of the people they serve.
Thank you for your attention.