Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have been to Trail, Nelson and Castlegar. I fully appreciate how difficult it is, especially for Mr. Atamanenko, to travel from one place to the other, given the mountains and all. Where did the people who appeared before the commission stand? To what extent did they support one proposal over another?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Ms. Turmel, most people support what I am proposing. In other words, they are against what the commission is proposing. The main reason is that they want to have what are known as communities of interest. They don't want Nelson, Castlegar and Trail separated. And, as I pointed out in my presentation, they don't want to separate Penticton from Summerland to put Penticton in the other riding.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would be hard, given that the demands of an urban population are different from those of small rural communities. It also depends on our staff. Frankly, if I were the member for a riding like that, I don't know how I could serve the people of Penticton and all the other regions in the riding.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say that is correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would make it easier for David or any other MP, if we take those areas he mentioned, Kaslo and New Denver and Nakusp, and retain them, put them in the current riding of British Columbia Southern Interior and, I'm not sure, take Sicamous, which is on Highway 1, which is currently in a riding of 121,000 according to the proposal, and add that to your riding.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll wrap up by saying that I've done some juggling of figures and I'll table them with the committee after. If we can meet our objectives so both David and I could have roughly 96,000 people in our ridings, which would satisfy the objectives—actually, David, it would take Meadow Creek and Nakusp out of your riding and bring in Sicamous, for example—then we would each have 96,000.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  --take it out of Mr. Atamanenko's five minutes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, thanks. Those maps are a little bit confusing at this end, too. The main thrust we have is that in the current riding they want to take the eastern part and split off Nelson and Kaslo, and bring Penticton into the riding and cut off the westerly communities. The people, including the former MPs, argued against this very idea.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is the current riding. I believe that's Nelson.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  And as we go here, that would be Princeton over here, with Manning Park. What they're proposing to do is to take Penticton which is here, I believe, and move it in here...or it's here.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  And then cut this off here. That must be this map here, I would imagine.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Go ahead. You're in Mr. Atamanenko's five minutes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Chair, if I could just add, we started this on a point of order. I hate the idea of taking this out of Mr. Atamanenko's time.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. Mr. Atamanenko, please, go ahead.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Sure, that's okay. I can do that. Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much for inviting me here. It's a little bit different being at this end of the table. On the one hand it's nice to be with colleagues; on the other hand, you get a little nervous to be among your peers. It's a pleasure being here with David.