Nelson Sergerie

QUEBEC – CAQ Members of the National Assembly (MNA) from the Gaspé Peninsula once again demanded the status quo before the Electoral Representation Commission during a parliamentary commission which ended on February 15 in Quebec City. 

The Gaspé Peninsula made itself heard during the last day of the hearings. MNA for Bonaventure, Catherine Blouin, and her colleague for Gaspé, Stéphane Sainte-Croix, each had 20 minutes to reaffirm their positions. This exercise was undertaken last fall during the Commission’s visit to Gaspé and New Richmond. 

The Commission suggests merging the constituencies of Gaspé and Bonaventure and bringing together the MRCs of Côte-de-Gaspé, Rocher-Percé, Bonaventure and Avignon to create Gaspé-Bonaventure while Haute-Gaspésie would be transferred to the constituency of Matane-Matapédia, a Lower Saint Lawrence Ms. Blouin on what the new constituency of Gaspé-Bonaventure would represent, recalling that Montreal’s constituencies have only a few street corners and are accessible on foot. 

“More time on the road means less time for fieldwork with citizens,” adds the elected official listing the organizations and institutions that would be included in the possible constituency. 

“Is a voter from the Gaspésie worth less than a voter from Montreal? I ask myself that question,” says Ms. Blouin to the commissioners before the parliamentary committee. 

“I am before you all dressed in black, and it is not by chance, considering the nature of the day, which is a concern for the democracy of our nation, the regions of Quebec and particularly worrisome for the Gaspésie,” says Stéphane Sainte-Croix, referring to without directly saying the possible mourning that the acceptance of the Commission’s proposal would cause. 

For the elected official, the merger of Gaspé and Bonaventure ridings would result in the loss of political weight of the Gaspésie compared to the whole of Quebec, recalling several statistics and comparisons of a future riding mentioned which would be one of the most important in terms of voters in Quebec, but with an extraordinarily large area compared to comparable ridings in Montreal. 

The MNA for Gaspé placed great emphasis on Haute-Gaspésie, the most devitalized MRC in Quebec, which would be submerged in the county of Matane-Matapédia in the current proposal. 

“By integrating this MRC into a predominantly Lower Saint Lawrence constituency, the historical links that unite Haute-Gaspésie to the rest of 

the Gaspésie are compromised. This restructuring, which has not been convincingly justified in our eyes, isolates the most devitalized MRC in Quebec from its regional counterparts, calling into question the principle of regional representation,” means Mr. Sainte-Croix. 

Currently, the Haute-Gaspésie MRC represents 50% of the Gaspé constituency and would only represent 17% of the expanded Matane-Matapédia constituency. 

“Similarly, the share of the voting population of Haute-Gaspésie would fall from 31% to 18%. This structural dilution could considerably reduce the political weight of Haute-Gaspésie, making its specific concerns and needs less audible and less politically visible,” affirms the MNA for Gaspé. 

“Our recommendation is simple: withdraw this merger proposal for the region and favour maintaining the status quo,” concludes the elected official. 

Mr. Sainte-Croix mentioned that of the 600 people who took the time to be heard last fall through public hearings in the province, 300 were from the Gaspésie. 

As of April 30, Bonaventure had 35,898 voters and Gaspé 30,131, far from the minimum threshold planned. The difference was respectively -29.2% and -40.6%. 

Gaspé thus ranked third among the least populous constituencies, behind the Magdalen Islands, which has an exceptional status as well as Ungava. 

According to projections of the number of voters based on data from the Institute of Statistics of Quebec, the gap compared to the average in Gaspé should soon surpass that of Ungava. 

In 2017, the Commission maintained the negative exception status for Gaspé and granted the same status to Bonaventure. However, since the inequalities in the representation of these constituencies are increasing, the Commission does not wish to renew this status. 

Elected officials called for this exception to be maintained.