Feds table bill to protect the number of Quebec seats in House of Commons

The federal authorities has tabled laws to make sure Quebec doesn’t lose a seat when Canada’s electoral map is redrawn.

It introduced a invoice Thursday to guard Quebec’s voice in Parliament after it confronted shedding a seat in an upcoming redistribution primarily based on inhabitants.

The invoice would stop Quebec’s variety of seats dropping to 77 from its present tally of 78.

The laws comes days after a dedication by the Liberal authorities to guard the variety of Commons seats in Quebec within the textual content of a cope with the NDP.

If permitted by Parliament, the invoice amending the Structure Act would be sure that the variety of MPs from every province doesn’t drop beneath the quantity that they had earlier than the final election.

As a result of Quebec’s inhabitants has declined, it stood to lose an MP within the upcoming redistribution of seats, whereas different provinces with rising populations, together with Alberta, would achieve MPs. The final time a province misplaced a seat in a redistribution was in 1966.

The transfer follows a movement tabled by the Bloc Québécois rejecting the proposal to redraw the electoral map in a means that reduces the province’s political weight within the Home of Commons.

Numerous authorities departments labored on the textual content of the invoice, however it is going to be championed via Parliament by Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

“The seat allocation and the electoral boundaries readjustment course of is a crucial a part of our democracy. It ensures the Home of Commons displays the altering nature of Canada’s demographic profile and that every one Canadians’ voices are successfully heard,” stated LeBlanc.

On Thursday, Pablo Rodriguez, the federal government’s Quebec lieutenant, stated the invoice is “reasonable” and would “remedy the issue right this moment, proper now in essentially the most practicable means doable for Quebec.”

Ten impartial electoral boundaries commissions will report on any adjustments wanted to electoral districts following the seat allocation. The commissions will maintain public hearings later this 12 months earlier than submitting their experiences on new electoral districts to Parliament.