Thank you, Madam Chair.
Esteemed colleagues, thank you for having me today.
In the first version of the electoral boundaries map proposed by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Quebec, the City of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines remained entirely in the Mirabel riding. Afterwards, following various consultations, there was a second version of the electoral boundaries map in which, to our great surprise, the municipality of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines was completely splintered from the City of Mirabel.
I can tell you that this new version of the map was very poorly received in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, in particular because there were no consultations with the people of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines.
As you will see, the mayor of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, the provincial member for Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, and much of the population of Mirabel, who are clearly not of my political stripe, supported my request to return Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines to the Mirabel riding. Otherwise, an important community of interest is being splintered. It's important to understand that what's being done is taking Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and putting it in the riding of Rivière-du-Nord.
To begin with, Mirabel and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines represent a community of interest in the Lower Laurentians economic region, which does not include the municipalities of La Rivière-du-Nord. Mirabel and the neighbouring RCMs in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines conduct many projects together, including economic projects. Tourisme Basses-Laurentides, which promotes our area, serves both Mirabel and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines.
ABL Immigration, a key organization whose mission is to promote and support the cultural and workforce integration of refugees and immigrants, serves Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and Mirabel, but not the municipalities of La Rivière-du-Nord.
There is also the matter of media ownership. The local newspapers that report on all community activity, including L'ÉveilInfos MirabelNord InfoLa Voix have journalists covering events in the municipalities of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and Mirabel, but none of them cover the municipalities of La Rivière-du-Nord.
The Mille-Îles school service centre, which socializes our children, and provides elementary, secondary and professional education, serves Mirabel and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, but not the municipalities in the riding of Rivière-du-Nord. The Agricultural Training Centre in Sainte-Scholastique, in Mirabel, offers training courses for young farmers in the farming community of Sainte-Anne-des- Plaines.
There is also the issue of expropriations. As you know, there were major expropriations in Mirabel in the 1960s and 1970s. These expropriations our even today causing concern in terms of land use planning, urban development, airport safety and security, and the agricultural sector. These expropriations were in Mirabel and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines. It is therefore essential to have an integrated riding where the MP is familiar with these issues, which is clearly the case for me.
There is a strong sense of attachment between Mirabel and Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, and communities of interest ought not to be splintered on the basis of columns of numbers. Keeping Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines in Mirabel would change absolutely nothing, or almost nothing, in the electoral quotient. We're talking about a variation of approximately 2%.
There is also the matter of demographic growth. Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines has a municipal bylaw that restricts and sets a ceiling on demographic growth, because the intent is to keep it as a farming city. It's very obvious that there were no consultations and that a community of interest is being split. It's very clear that the community of interest at issue is very unhappy about the news.
Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines is tired of continually changing from one riding to another. It was in the riding of Terrebonne—Blainville for 10 years, and then became part of the riding of Mirabel. It has now been shifted to the Rivière-du-Nord riding, and given the demographic growth of the cities in that riding, it might be shifted to yet another one in 10 years. It needs stability. When you have a community of interest, it's important to be careful and to ensure that the ties that have been established can remain strong. That's exactly the opposite of what has been done by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission.