Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of having the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup as my neighbour, in the next riding. The riding that he has the honour of representing shares its eastern border with my riding of Bellechasse, so that we have a common border. The communities of Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, Sainte-Louise-des-Aulnaies, Mont-Carmel, that is from the St. Lawrence River to the Maine border, are the eastern limit of the riding of Bellechasse.
My colleague from Chicoutimi was saying that it is a beautiful riding. Indeed, all the ridings that we represent are the most beautiful in Canada or in Quebec, because that is where we live, those are the people that we represent. So, it is quite normal for us to think that our ridings are the most beautiful. The South Shore, most of which I have the honour to represent with my colleague from Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup, is definitely a beautiful region.
These ridings may look alike in many respects, with more or less the same number of municipalities, about 60 of them, and with the new map, about 70. I now realize that it took me about 18 months before I managed to cover my whole riding. I do not know about the member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup; perhaps he will have the opportunity of enlightening me by answering my question.
I am bringing up the point raised by the hon. member for Kindersley-Lloydminster in committee and here, during debate. Let us expand rural ridings; that is no problem, we can simply have more staff. Let us add two or three assistants in the ridings. However, as far as I know, on the ballot, we do not vote for parliamentary assistants, for riding assistants, we vote for the member of Parliament.
Any constituent in my riding, whether living in Saint-Pamphile- de-l'Islet, in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, in Lac-Etchemin, in Bromont or in Sainte-Claire-de-Dorchester, has the right to meet me. As a rural member, I find myself in a situation where these constituents, because of distances, because of all the
restraints, because of the multiplication of municipal councils and other municipal and regional organizations, are less able to meet me than the constituents of an urban member.
I want to ask my hon. colleague whether he has the same problems and whether he believes, like the hon. member for Kindersley-Lloydminster, that the increase in constituency staff will compensate for the extension of rural ridings in such a way that the voice of rural constituents will be adequately heard in the House?