Jean-Francois Roberge, minister of democratic institutions, said his bill is supported by the Liberals, Parti Quebecois and Quebec solidaire.

The bill is the government's latest attempt to prevent Montreal and the Gaspe Peninsula from losing ridings in the redrawn map by the independent electoral boundaries commission.

The commission had proposed eliminating one riding in Gaspe and another in Montreal's east end in favour of two new districts in the growing Laurentians/Lanaudiere and Centre-du-Quebec regions.

The Quebec government passed a law to block the changes in 2024, but that law was deemed unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal and eventually by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Members of all parties had expressed concerns that the commission's map would have taken away political weight from Gaspe and made ridings in eastern Quebec overly large.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2026.