During a session of the Standing Committee on House Procedures and Affairs, Bloc Québécois House Speaker Alain Therrien tabled a related amendment to Bill C-14, which seeks to prevent Quebec from rising from 78 to 77 seats in the lower house.

” The House of Commons has given Quebec the label “nation”. And it was voted in favor by a very, very, very, very strong majority. Listen, the lyrics have to have meaning […] the boots must follow the chops. »

The chairman of the committee then immediately ruled that the motion is out of order under the House of Commons procedures as the amendment is overstepped scope and principle.

The Chair believes that under Bill C-14, the allocation of 25% of the seats in the Lower House to the Province of Quebec could require reducing the number of seats for one or more provinces. which is contrary to the principle of the billstated President Bardish Chagger.

Mr Therrien then called for a vote to challenge his decision. All MPs present at the meeting supported the President’s decision, with the exception of the bloc member.

The Bloc Québécois private member’s bill C-246, which had the same objective, was defeated at a second reading on Wednesday.

March, The block had made a motion in the House of Commons Reject any scenario that would redraw the map of the federal elections that would result in the loss of one or more Quebec electoral districts or that would reduce Quebec’s political weight in the House of Commons.

The bloc opposes Bill C-14 because Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia would still increase their number of seats to accommodate changes in Canadian populations, meaning Quebec’s political clout would decrease.

Quebec currently holds 78 of the 338 seats in the lower house, or 23.1% of the seats. So it would take seven more MPs to reach the 25 percent hurdle demanded by the Bloc Québécois.