Industry committee  I'm very grateful for the opportunity to address this esteemed committee. I'd like to welcome ministerial colleague Dr. Kirsty Duncan, who will be joining you in the next hour to update you on her role and her mandate as the Minister of Science. Not here today but an integral part of our ministerial team is the Honourable Bardish Chagger.

National Seal Products Day Act  The seal harvest goes beyond just wildlife management. Archaeological evidence suggests that native Americans and first nations peoples have been hunting seals for thousands of years. Seal meat was, and is today, an important source of fat, protein, and vitamins, and seal products hold significant and traditional values to northern communities and our first nations.

Justice committee  In 2013 the RCMP report “Domestic Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Canada” talked about victims who also reported torture tactics. The 2014 report by the Native Women's Association of Canada mentioned torture many times and says that torture is torture. This is what we, as a country, know about what's happened with regard to torture and women in our country.

Justice committee  The support of the London Abused Women's Centre, and its director Megan Walker, is extremely and sincerely appreciated, as is the support of the chief of police services in London, John Pare. I thank them both very much. With that said, I would also like to commend Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson, from Nova Scotia, who will appear before you shortly. These two women are staunch advocates for the inclusion of torture in the private sphere into the Criminal Code.

Electoral Reform committee  We have three panellists: Antony Hodgson, from Fair Voting BC; Diana Byford, who is with the B.C. Citizens' Assembly; and our former colleague, the Honourable John Duncan. Nice to see you again, Mr. Duncan. We'll start with Mr. Antony Hodgson, for 10 minutes, please.

Electoral Reform committee  I get to follow up on the “male, pale, and stale”. I think I am just going to leave that one alone, actually. First, John Duncan is an old friend and a former colleague. John and I go back almost a quarter of a century. The first time we met was back in 1992. You were a brand new MP. John, please forgive me for the fact that I am going to ask my questions of the other witnesses.

Business of Supply  Then we made sure that no stakeholders knowingly were there. We were very careful. However, when that slipped, John Duncan, the former minister to whom the member referred, immediately stepped down and took responsibility. We are looking for accountability, something where the Liberals will say that they are doing the wrong thing and that they are going to reverse course.

Wendell Fulton  Wendell's dedication to community, and the advice and counsel he shared with so many will be dearly missed. We extend our thoughts to Pamela, Duncan, Hannah, and his entire family.

Government Operations committee  Of course, people are mobile now. A grandmother can be sending a package to St. John's, Newfoundland—

Environment committee  They'll tell me later what I got wrong. Of the folks who were going to present, one is Bob Lowe. Bob is a rancher from southern Alberta. He is currently also the chair of the Alberta Beef Producers. He chairs our environment committee. It's unfortunate that you don't have him here.

Environment committee  Everybody is running around trying to do a lot of things. Wayne Stetski is standing in for Linda Duncan on this particular study. You've been with us the whole way through, so you are not really a stand-in, but we want to recognize that. Welcome to all. We have three witnesses with us today.

Electoral Reform committee  However, when so many thousands of Canadians lost their lives and we sent them off without a referendum, I think we have to think about that. The second thing I'd like to do is to comment on the Honourable John Duncan's point of view that we should have—I'm searching here for words. I'm sorry. We really need to have a situation where the member of Parliament is the one who is doing all of that work to represent their constituents.

Electoral Reform committee  You can't do proportionality without making rural ridings bigger.

Electoral Reform committee  You can't do two member ridings without making rural ridings bigger.

Electoral Reform committee  I'd like to talk about urbanization, and what that means to riding size in rural locations. We heard a little bit about this, and I'd like the Honourable John Duncan to tell us about this as a person who represented a large riding for so many years. The way the redistribution of seats typically works is that the relative size of a riding by population doesn't change over time.