HANSARD
NOVA SCOTIA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
SELECT COMMITTEE ON
ESTABLISHING AN
ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES COMMISSION
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
7:00 P.M.
YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA
Printed and Published by Nova Scotia Hansard Reporting Services
SELECT COMMITTEE ON
ESTABLISHING AN
ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES COMMISSION
Hon. Ross Landry (Chairman)
Mr. Gary Ramey
Ms. Michele Raymond
Mr. Leonard Preyra
Mr. Jim Boudreau
Hon. Michel Samson
Mr. Andrew Younger
Hon. Christopher d'Entremont
Mr. Keith Bain
[Hon. Michel Samson was replaced by Mr Wayne Gaudet]
[Mr. Andrew Younger was replaced by Mr. Zach Churchill]
Witnesses
Mr. Noé Bourque, Conseil jeunesse provincial
Ms. Ashley White, Conseil jeunesse provincial
In Attendance:
Ms. Kim Langille
Select Committee Clerk
YARMOUTH, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011
SELECT COMMITTEE
ON
ESTABLISHING AN ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES COMMISSION
CHAIRMAN
Hon. Ross Landry
MR. CHAIRMAN: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We will now call this committee to order. I thank you for coming this evening. I understand that there are a couple of speakers, and I welcome anyone else who may want to put their name on the list to put their name on the list.
I'll just go over some key points from this afternoon. My name is Ross Landry, and I'm the Chair of this committee. This session is to be recorded. It's a matter of public record, so anything said, if you don't want it repeated, then don't say it, because it will be on the record.
I will make some introductions and I'll start to my right.
[The committee members introduced themselves.]
And as I stated, I am Ross Landry and I am the Justice Minister. I thank you for coming tonight.
The two speakers that we have on the agenda here tonight are Noé Bourque - all right, come on up - and Ashley White, or Ashley LeBlanc, as was clearly pointed out at one of our sessions there, from the Acadian community when the gentleman had met someone called "White," he gave me the history that, in fact, the actual name historically goes back to their French roots and that it was LeBlanc and they changed it to anglicize it, so if there's truth to that substance there's a little history note.
AN HON. MEMBER: At least we learned something.
MR. CHAIRMAN: That was reported in Truro so it must be true. Go ahead, welcome and thank you for being here.
MR. NOÉ BOURQUE: Bonjour. Merci, M. le Président et membres du comité. Je m'appelle Noé Bourque.
MS. ASHLEY WHITE: Je m'appelle Ashley White.
MR. BOURQUE: On est représentants du CJP, un Conseil jeunesse provincial et du Conseil jeunesse de Par-en-Bas. On aimerait souligner que le CJP appui les recommandations soumises par les membres du CAPEB pendant les discours qui ont pris place cet après-midi.
On a pris ce temps, entre ces deux sessions, pour réfléchir, puis on a obtenus une conclusion. On a conclus que, clairement, les gens de ces communautés, pensent que nos circonscriptions électorales fonctionnent efficacement, si bien, en effet, qu'on questionne l'efficacité de cette tournée ici au comté de Yarmouth.
Nos circonscriptions travaillent. Puis quand ce que t'a quelque chose qui travaille, c'est mieux de rien changer.
Notre population est en décroissance. Notre taux de français parlé est menacé à chaque jour, puis, on ne peut pas essayer de changer ce qui travaille déjà, à cause du risque qu'il y a que ça va faire ces deux points ici pire.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Ms. Raymond
MS. RAYMOND: Merci et bienvenue au processus. Ça m'intéresse beaucoup, car je comprends que vous êtes encore des étudiants - peut-être que vous n'avez pas encore votés? Est-ce possible? Mais c'est très bien à savoir que vous croyez que ça fonctionne, que ce processus fonctionne. J'aimerais peut-être entendre un peu de plus, qu'est-ce-que vous entends, des parents, des aînés et de tout ceci, qui votent encore. Ça veut dire quoi, que ça marche?
MR. BOURQUE: Bien, de mon point de vue, une représentation des régions acadiennes, I guess ce n'est pas le meilleur, obviously, mais, it's as good as it can get.
MS. RAYMOND: Vous n'entendez pas de grands maleurs de vos aînés et tout ça, non? Okay. Merci beaucoup.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I want to thank you for coming, for having the courage, and I also want to thank you for participating this afternoon and taking the time to listen to the adults of the community, the elders, and to show them support. I think, looking at some of the body language in some of the discussion, I think they're honoured to have you here and to be a part and that's a good part in the journey to being young adults and contributing to society. You're making a good statement here and we thank you for sharing.
MR. BOURQUE: Thank you for listening.
MS. WHITE: Thank you.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to take a minute to come up? We had over 19 people this afternoon and we had two leftovers from this afternoon who presented this evening. I do welcome you otherwise we will take a 10 minute recess to see if some new speakers will come forward. So we will adjourn for 10 minutes, thank you.
[7:09 p.m. The committee recessed]
[7:26 p.m. The committee reconvened.]
MR. CHAIRMAN: I will now call the committee back to order. Is there anyone interested in coming forward who's in the audience and may not have had the chance to speak earlier? Going once, going twice, sold.
We had approximately 20 people here today and it was excellent to be in Yarmouth. I see no need to prolong this evening if no one is going to come forward. We will call it an evening and adjourn the official portion of this committee here in Yarmouth. We have an in-camera issue that I need to address with the committee, so we will do that with the microphones turned off.
I thank you for coming in. If you had been here this afternoon - you had to squeeze to find a seat. It was packed and it was excellent. Thank you very much. We are now adjourned.
[The committee adjourned at 7:27 p.m.]
