Mr. Speaker, I was interested in the member's presentation which of course was excellent.
As the member knows, the population of Canada in our centennial year of 1967 was approximately 20 million people. We were quite proud of the 20 million that we accomplished at our centennial. Approximately 30 years later our population is about 30 million.
We have increased by 10 million people in 30 years. Looking forward from the 1991 dicennial census to the 2001 dicennial census our population could very well increase by 3 million people. We are in the guessing game but it is a fair guess.
At the current time we have about one member of Parliament for every 100,000 residents of the country. That means by the year 2001 perhaps we will need one dozen, two dozen or as many as 30 more members of Parliament if we do not restrain the growth of the House of Commons.
Can the member condone this piece of legislation which does not deal with that pressing problem?