Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-25, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act and to enact an act to change the names of certain electoral districts, 2026.
As everyone knows, my riding is currently called Richmond—Arthabaska. The aim is to change its name to Richmond—Arthabaska—Val-des-Sources. This is important to me. The Les Sources RCM is currently the heart of the riding, but it is not represented. At present, the Les Sources RCM is undergoing rapid development. My riding encompasses 39 municipalities, including all seven municipalities within the Les Sources RCM. Unfortunately, the current name makes no reference to that. To make it easier for voters to identify their territory, I think it would be important for the name to include all three major areas, namely Arthabaska, Richmond and Val‑des‑Sources, which is at its heart.
On Wednesday, January 21, I made the announcement to the mayors of the Les Sources RCM and the reeve, Hugues Grimard, who welcomed this recognition of the Les Sources RCM. It is important to note that the main city in the Les Sources RCM is Val‑des‑Sources, where half of the RCM's population resides. It has a population of 14,623 and covers an area of nearly 800 square kilometres. The Les Sources RCM is made up of seven municipalities: Danville, Ham‑Sud, Saint‑Adrien, Saint‑Camille, Saint‑Georges‑de‑Windsor, Val‑des‑Sources and Wotton.
It is important to note that in 1983, the RCM was known as L'Or-Blanc RCM. It was later renamed the Asbestos RCM, and has been known as Les Sources RCM since 2006. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the mayors of each of these municipalities. I would like to acknowledge Martine Satre, mayor of Danville, Serge Bernier, mayor of Ham-Sud, François Pinard, mayor of Saint-Camille, Émilie Windsor, mayor of Saint-Adrien, René Perreault, mayor of Saint-Georges-de-Windsor, Hugues Grimard, mayor of the Town of Val-des-Sources and reeve of the RCM, and lastly, Jocelyn Dion, mayor of Wotton.
It was a privilege to present this project to all the mayors and to give citizens the opportunity to identify with their electoral district. For the record, I ran for office as an MNA in 2016. I was going door-to-door in the municipality of Lyster, which is at the far end of my provincial riding. People told me I was not in the right riding, that I was in the Arthabaska riding. At the time, the Arthabaska riding included all 11 municipalities of L'Érable RCM. That is when I realized that people in L'Érable RCM did not feel a sense of connection to the riding. As a result, on June 9, 2017, I introduced Bill 896 in the Quebec National Assembly to replace the name of the Arthabaska riding with Arthabaska-L'Érable. It took much longer there than it did here. On June 5, 2025, the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 896, aimed at changing the name of the Arthabaska riding to Arthabaska-L'Érable.
People may tell me that changing a riding's name is not a priority for either the riding or the House of Commons. I want to assure everyone that the number one concern for all elected officials right now is obviously the cost of living, gas, rent and groceries. These concerns fill our days here. However, while other matters may be less pressing, they also involve changes that we need to take this opportunity to make.
I want to assure people that just because I worked on the riding name change bill does not mean that I am ignoring other matters of critical importance to the people of Richmond—Arthabaska, a riding that I hope will soon be known as Richmond—Arthabaska—Val-des-Sources. I also work for all Canadians.
I know that at the moment, Canadians have a lot more important concerns on their minds than a riding's name change. I want to assure people once again that members elected to the House spend their days working to improve Canadians' quality of life and give them some breathing room. However, we can also work on matters of a more technical nature. I consider this bill a bill of principle, of representation. I see it as making a correction on the riding's behalf to ensure that the region is properly represented.
The Les Sources RCM went through some rough times when the mine closed. Economically, things got a lot harder. The Les Sources RCM is now experiencing a period of significant economic development and is undergoing a major economic resurgence. Now seems like the perfect time to include Val-des-Sources in a new riding name: Richmond—Arthabaska—Val-des-Sources.
I will stop there. If any of my colleagues have questions about the proposed name change for my riding, I would be happy to answer them.