BAN ON SHARK FIN IMPORTATION ACT  Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure for me today to offer support for Bill C-380, an act to amend the Fish Inspection Act and the Fisheries Act, which would prohibit the importation of shark fins not attached to the rest of the shark and enshrine in legislation Canada's prohibition on finning.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have two sets of petitions to present. The first petition has over 500 names from Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. The petitioners point out that horses are ordinarily kept and treated as sport and companion animals. They are not raised as food production. They are commonly administered drugs that are strictly prohibited from being used in the food chain.

The Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his question. There are clearly differences between rural and urban areas. All of those differences need to be taken into account when a bill is being introduced. I personally represent a rural area, as do many other members. This difference should always be considered, as should the needs of the people living in rural regions.

The Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, of course we are rushing to do this. Earlier in her speech on the bill, my colleague from Gatineau likened this to students preparing for a final exam at the last minute and then getting the results. This is what has happened here. The point is what has happened has happened.

The Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Saint-Lambert. The way I understand this bill, it is a reaction to Bill C-30, which was introduced previously, and although it was thought that it would solve problems related to wiretaps, it did not, and proved to be a mistake.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I've seen him work out. Bowling, it doesn't matter. No, he's a bowler too.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On this whole urban-rural thing, the idea is that, in general, if we're going to be adding population, it's a lot easier for accessibility to add it to urban ridings, where you add a few more city blocks. There's not much difference in the access to the MP. This commission seems to be really worried about population more so than what I believe in the rural area should be geography.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think this once again goes fundamentally against what all of these people and the 50 or so people who appeared before the three commissions stated. They do not want the West Kootenay split up. We have MLAs and mayors, and I just received letters from some mayors this morning, from Trail and from Castlegar and Nelson, and the small communities.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have a quick question on the document I have in front of me that Elections Canada has prepared on Mr. Atamanenko's summary of his proposal. I see the riding here of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, population of 138,517. I don't know, is that a result of your recommendations? Is that what that overview column is?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Actually, we try to encourage buying local. We have what we call the Tri-Cities. Unfortunately, sometimes people cross the boundary to buy cars in our region. If they want something from a big city, they usually go to Kelowna. They can get there without going through Penticton, since they're heading north.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Eight miles, David was saying, so they're close.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Can I just say something? The people in the west, in Penticton, don't really care about what happens in the West Kootenays, and the people in the West Kootenays don't really care about what happens in Penticton. The feedback I got, and David mentioned he worked there, is that in Penticton there's more of this affinity with Summerland and other communities there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The second question was, have you talked to your colleagues about these proposed changes, and if so, do they agree? Is it that you did not speak to each other, or did you? Mr. Atamanenko came with a suggestion that Mr. Wilks seems to have heard for the first time in his life, if I'm not wrong.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Monsieur Dion, the letter I sent to the committee I sent to David to get his comments. I also sent it to Dan Albas, because I knew Dan had written the op-ed where he argued strongly to separate urban and rural, which this proposal doesn't do. I did receive feedback from David saying that he doesn't really support what I'm saying, but he basically was saying that if we have to do this, we should include the other communities there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Maybe you may react to the suggestions Mr. Atamanenko made a couple of minutes ago.