Mr. Speaker, lady and gentleman chairs, members and secretaries of the Commissions, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, once again, I would like to tell you that it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this conference, which between now and Friday will give us many opportunities to look at the various aspects of the federal electoral boundary readjustment process.

I should mention at the start that this is the most exhaustive such conference that has ever been organized. Previously, the chairs were involved, perhaps members of the administrative staff, but to bring together the chairs, the members and the secretaries is a first, a first of which I’m very proud because I think it will give us – and through my remarks, you will see this – an opportunity to at least appreciate what the legislator had in mind when that law was passed and with the amendments that occurred in terms of what redistribution should be across this land, this great and wonderful land.

This is a very special opportunity for each one of us to contribute to one of the pillars of our parliamentary democracy.

In accordance with the Constitution Act, and the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, representation in the House of Commons is adjusted after every decennial census to take account of the changes and movements in Canada’s population. The work that you are preparing to begin within your individual commissions lies at the heart of this process.

Yesterday, the Chief Statistician, Ivan Fellegi, gave me the results of the 2001 Census. He also gave them to Minister Goodale. Since 1991, the population of Canada has risen from 27,296,859 to 30,007,094 million inhabitants.

The publication of these figures marks the beginning of the electoral boundaries readjustment process. With these data and using the formulas set out by the Constitution Act, I was able this morning to reveal to you the number of seats there will be in the House of Commons, and the number each province will have once the readjustment is completed.

The number of the seats in the House will go at that time from 301 to 308, obviously reflecting an addition of seven seats.

Three provinces will see their representation increase – British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. All the other provinces will have the same number of seats in the House of Commons as they have currently.

Moreover, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut keep one seat each. This allocation to them has been provided for in the Constitution and thus eliminates the need for electoral boundaries commissions for the three territories. Since each one has only one seat, there’s no purpose to a commission.

As I mentioned, this distribution is arrived at using a formula set out by the Constitution. There are four steps in the calculation:

First, of the 282 seats in the House in 1985, when the legislative amendments were introduced, one goes to the Northwest Territories, one to the Yukon Territory, and one to Nunavut which was established on April 1, 1999, which leaves 279 seats for the ten provinces.

Second, the total figure for the population of the ten provinces, which excludes the territories, is then divided by this figure of 279. This result gives the national electoral quotient used to determine the number of seats for each province at this stage.

Now we come to the third step, this theoretical number is calculated by dividing the figure for the total population of each of the provinces by the national electoral quotient obtained in step 2; if the result is a fraction greater than 0.50, the number of seats is rounded up to the next whole number.

You will no doubt have noted that I said "theoretical," because once the number of seats per province is determined, I must proceed with – and this is the fourth step – the necessary adjustments by applying what is called the "senatorial clause" and what is called the "grandfather clause."

Since 1915, the senatorial clause has guaranteed that no province can have fewer seats in the House of Commons than it has in the Senate. Under the grandfather clause – the second clause – entrenched in the Representation Act, 1985, no province can have fewer seats than it had in 1976 or thus than it had during the 33rd Parliament.

After making the necessary adjustments, we arrive at the distribution that I just presented to you. That then is how the 308 seats in the House of Commons are divided up among the 10 provinces and 3 territories.

However, the application of the principle of representation, which is at the heart of the readjustment of electoral boundaries, does not stop there.

I think that you have received a kit, by the way, that explains how the formula works in detail. And this obviously is part of what will be shared at the press conference that will be held at the Press Club once I leave the session this morning.

The country, each province still has to be divided into territorial areas, commonly referred to as ridings, each represented by an elected member in the House of Commons. This exercise is, properly speaking, the readjustment of electoral boundaries. The Act sets out the rules to follow to complete this enormous task properly, and I will return to it a few times during my presentation.

However, before looking at the steps, I would like to talk about certain principles that underlie our entire effort and all the work of your commissions.

In 1964, Parliament decided to make independent commissions, one for each province, responsible for readjusting electoral boundaries. Your independence as a commission is a fundamental element of the readjustment process. It is one other element that sets Canada apart as a world leader in electoral democracy.

Moreover, the fact that the Act prohibits any senator, any member of Parliament or any member of a territorial or provincial legislative assembly or council from being part of a commission illustrates this firm intention to shield the process from undue political interference.

As commissioners, you will have to develop proposals for new electoral boundaries that take into account the most recent census data and various other considerations. You will have to prepare the description of these new boundaries with maps illustrating the proposed borders, choose the names of the electoral districts and indicate the population of each district.

Numerous observers have already affirmed that the history of Canada is based on compromise. The representation of the provinces in the House of Commons is certainly a concrete example of this. The principle of territorial representation, in which every citizen and persons resident in Canada are represented in the House based on a geographical division called an electoral district, as I have said, remains one of the foundations of our first "past the post" system.

Canadian democracy gives all citizens the right to help choose their representatives in Parliament. The right to vote is a fundamental right based on the intrinsic value of every human being.

In 1991, a Supreme Court ruling clarified the application of this principle and thus, the true significance of the right to vote lies not in absolute equality of electoral power, but in the right to effective representation. These are the principles that guide the establishment of electoral districts. Onto themselves, they also constitute a compromise.

As Chief Electoral Officer, it is my duty to inform the public about our political system and its rights in electoral matters and to remove any potential obstacles to the exercise of those rights.

Public participation in the readjustment of electoral boundaries is beyond any doubt one of the cornerstones of that democratic exercise and it is incumbent upon us to ensure that everyone can participate in it in a fair and equitable manner.

As Canadians, we are privileged to live in a representative democracy. Citizens have not only the right to vote, but also the right to participate in decisions that affect them individually and collectively.

Every government in a representative democracy derives its legitimacy from the legality of the electoral process, from popular consent and from the public’s ability to participate in the democratic process. The readjustment of federal electoral boundaries is part of that process, and that is why the people in each province must be able to express their opinions about the proposals that you will be developing. I will come back to this in a minute.

As prescribed by the Act, each province will be given a share of electoral districts such that the population figure for each district corresponds as much as possible to the quotient produced by dividing the population of each province according to the census by the number of seats that the province is to receive in the House.

For example, in New Brunswick, each electoral district should have some 72,950 persons, while in Alberta, that figure would represent some 106,243 persons.

However, the readjustment cannot be reduced to a simple mathematical calculation. It’s practically impossible to do so. It also requires a delicate balance that takes account of both human interests and the geographic characteristics of electoral districts.

That is why the Act requires that certain elements be taken into consideration in determining a district’s electoral boundaries: community of interest or identity or its historical pattern come to mind.

In order to take human and geographic factors into account, the legislation authorizes the commissions to depart from the electoral quotient when establishing electoral boundaries.

However, the commissions cannot depart more than 25 percent up or down from the quotient set for the province except in special circumstances. Such circumstances are to be determined by each commission and are more common in northern and lightly populated areas.

Furthermore, in order to take the concept of community of interests into account, the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act allows for the possibility of ignoring geographical criteria when setting electoral boundaries.

At the provincial level, in Nova Scotia to be precise, the most recent redistribution integrated the concept of designated electoral districts for aboriginal people not necessarily based on the territorial contiguity of an electoral district. This element could be part of your deliberations when you are setting the new boundaries for your province.

In short, we are not talking about a process that is uniform across the country necessarily. Like the diversity that is so much part of Canada, geographic, historical, linguistic, social and cultural characteristics will have to play a central role in your thinking when the time comes to define the community of interests that justifies electoral boundaries.

On Thursday afternoon, we will have a working session dedicated specifically to a full exploration of the concept of community of interests.

Each commission will have a year to formulate its proposals, hold public hearings and produce a report. You will have to hold public hearings during which individuals, groups and members of Parliament can, after advising you in writing, express their opinions on your proposals. You will then send your reports to me, and I will forward them to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who will table them in the House.

The members of Parliament then have 30 days to make known any objection they may wish to make.

The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, if tradition is maintained, will examine these objections and submit a report to the Speaker of the House.

I will have these reports sent to you and you will have to examine the objections raised. You alone decide if you will make changes. As commissioners, you have the ultimate responsibility to determine electoral boundaries for your province. The House of Commons will have no role in approving your decisions. You have the final say.

I will then prepare the representation order, in which I must identify and describe the electoral districts that you will have established and send it to Cabinet.

The order will then be published in the Canada Gazette within 10 days.

Barring mishaps or delays – and there were none in the last process concerning the commissions themselves or in the House of Commons – the new order should be proclaimed in June of 2003 and the new boundaries would then come into effect a year later.

There is one year of suspension to allow political parties, electoral machinery, candidates, members of Parliament to adjust and set their machinery at work in accordance with them.

If the legislature is dissolved at the end of June 2004, the current electoral boundaries will be used for the election. If it is after that, it is the ones that you will have struck.

Throughout the course of your work, you will be able to count on the support of my office and its personnel. Elections Canada has wide experience in this matter, and I was in this position during the previous electoral boundaries readjustment process, which was held between 1993 and 1996, as various pieces of legislation concerning boundary redistribution were being processed in the House of Commons and which eventually died as the Speaker quite rightly noted, in the Senate.

Providing the support for the independent commissions is part of our mandate at Elections Canada. Support can take the form of professional, financial, technical or administrative assistance, and includes liaison services with federal departments and agencies such as Statistics Canada and Natural Resources Canada – yes, they have a role to play – and, as was noted earlier, with the Speaker of the House of Commons, who also has a very important role to play.

You will have access to a brand-new cutting edge software designed by Elections Canada that will allow cartographers to quickly simulate electoral boundary scenarios. This software integrates population data from the 2001 and multiple variables, including socio-demographic data adapted to the 2001 Census.

We will expand on this further during the Geography session Friday. You will find this tool particularly useful when developing your redistribution proposals. You will, as I mentioned, be given a demonstration on Friday morning.

A section has been added to the Elections Canada Web site. Entitled Federal Representation 2004, it brings together a great deal of information in order to keep Canadian electors regularly informed.

It will include ten subsections, one for each of the provinces, including the boundary proposals that will be submitted to the public during the public hearings.

We will be giving you a presentation on the Web site tomorrow morning.

Another point concerning the distribution of information: each commission will have to publish its proposed electoral map, showing the proposed boundaries, in daily and community newspapers and certain specialized revues, and in the Canada Gazette.

You will have access to Elections Canada’s communications services for this purpose.

The public will be invited to attend hearings. The dates and locations of the public hearings will also be advertised, at least 60 days in advance.

The location of these meetings should be chosen to encourage as large a turnout as possible.

During the previous readjustment, public hearings were held in 65 locations across the country. We can expect that number to be greater this time, assuming we manage not to confuse the public with Bills the way we did last time.

MPs can participate along with the general public as the Speaker mentioned a little while ago. The readjustment of electoral districts is, as I said, part of the Canadian democratic process, and we must ensure that everyone can fully exercise their rights with respect to and take part in this process.

I also want to mention that there is a possibility of a provincial electoral redistribution in five provinces at the same time as we are conducting the federal process. If this happens, it will be important to ensure that the advertising campaign does not confuse members of the public, which will be no small task.

Elections Canada staff, including our legal services, are well versed in the questions that you will be dealing with during the coming weeks and months. They will be available at all times to help you and to support you in your work, including the production of your reports.

The commission chairs and members will be able to communicate with me at any time. The line is open. I will also be able to intervene when necessary to provide liaison between the commissions and Parliament.

Under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, I am also responsible for overseeing the costs associated with this process, which will then be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The administrative procedures will be established for this purpose. I can assure you that they will greatly facilitate your task.

It is important to exercise a healthy vigilance over the expenses that must be incurred during this exercise. It is a question of ensuring effective management of public funds.

The delimitation of electoral districts is, as I said, an important component of our parliamentary system. It determines the territory that an MP will represent and where electors will go to vote.

Our democracy is based on the principle of representation, and the delimitation of electoral districts is certainly one of its most obvious manifestations.

During the next few days, you will have the opportunity to meet and talk with Elections Canada staff and to hear distinguished speakers.

Tomorrow morning, Ms. Dyane Adam, the Commissioner of Official Languages, will discuss the concept of community of interest from the perspective of the country’s two official languages. No doubt she will also talk to us about measures to take with regard to communications with the public through your office.

In the afternoon, the concept of community of interest will also be the subject of a panel discussion by a group of academics with a great deal of experience with electoral redistribution. The panel will be chaired by Professor John Courtney of the University of Saskatchewan and also feature professors Jennifer Smith of Dalhousie University and Réjean Pelletier of the Université Laval.

Professor Courtney is the author of the book entitled Commissioned Ridings, which we provided to you within the context of this conference.

Friday morning, Mr. Phil Fontaine, Chief Commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission and former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will talk about ways of encouraging Aboriginal communities to participate more fully in the readjustment process.

This conference is an ideal opportunity to obtain a wealth of information that will help you in your work.

The task before you is a complex one but Canadians are demanding when it comes to electoral and democratic matters, and rightly so. This task is also, for you, and for my staff and I, a real privilege.

Representation in Parliament, right here in Ottawa, is the very basis of our Canadian democracy. Our laws ensure that this representation is as equitable and effective as possible, based on the choices we have made during our history.

We live in a country that is relatively young compared to many others on the planet. I once read that it takes 300 years for a country to become a country in every sense of the word. The weight of history is perhaps less heavy here than elsewhere; Canadians have shown a great capacity for adaptation that has allowed them to benefit from economic changes, political and social changes, cultural and technological changes.

The Canadian reality is in constant evolution, as the data from the 2001 Census has just reminded us. I am convinced that the electoral boundaries readjustment process we are about to begin and the results it produces will be an accurate reflection of that reality.

I am also sure that you will demonstrate a determination and sustained dedication in the performance of your duties.

On behalf of all my fellow citizens, I want to thank you sincerely for agreeing to perform this service for them. Thank you very much.