No, we didn't talk about that.
Evidence of meeting #13 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was privacy.
Evidence of meeting #13 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was privacy.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I think we'd have to have a big discussion about what that means. Then there's proprietary information, security, and identification—
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
—and privacy. We should have the Privacy Commissioner.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Can we just leave “workplaces” out?
I think what's happening now is that we ask for permission to be on site, or whatever, and that seems to work out well. Is that fair?
Mrs. Brown.
6:20 p.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Yes, I do all right going to plant gates as the workers are coming. But I tried to stand in the parking lot of a large corporation, where people were parking their cars and coming to a sidewalk to go up to the main door, and I was asked to leave by the security guard. I thought that was outrageous. I could greet the blue-collar workers on the other side of the property. Nobody worried about that at all; they welcomed me. Then I went over to the head office building, and they asked me to leave the parking lot.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
6:20 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I went to a property and it was liberal.
I believe it is important to have at our disposal a place where we can meet people at their work place as long as it is done with respect. In a democracy, people should have an opportunity to meet their candidates and the candidates must be able to campaign.
We are ready to go meet people in schools and shopping centres. There are people working there.
But the issue that arises in work places and which disappoints employees is that some employers are friends of members of a given political party. These people can stand at the door and hand out leaflets while other candidates are expelled from the property. This causes internal strife, which is wrong. I think the playing field should be the same for all.
We must also respect the employer and not disrupt the company's operations. However, I do not see how one could disrupt operations by shaking people's hands at the doors of the business. I sincerely believe that workers expect politicians to come and meet them.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
What I would recommend at this stage is that we reword this so that in fact it does include those external aspects of a workplace, given that a shopping mall is obviously private property as well, but it is where the public is invited to be. But at a workplace, it's private property. Perhaps we could reword this to suggest that we can get to the gates, and we can review that.
I have Madame Picard first, and then Mr. Preston.
6:20 p.m.
Bloc
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
Mr. Chairman, I noticed during the last two elections that it is more and more difficult to enter work places. For example, in my riding, there are 500 businesses. In addition, there are more and more candidates.
In 1993, when I first ran for office, there were three parties, the New Democratic Party being absent. Now, there are four, five, six and even seven. Business owners say that if they open their doors to a candidate, they will have to do so five or six times, which can indeed disrupt work. They would be willing to open their doors to one or two candidates, but obviously, they cannot make that choice.
I think all candidates should be able to greet people at the exit of their work place. However, if three or four candidates are there at the same time, it might bother people. Some would even tell us to stop pestering them.
I do not see how we could solve that problem. I know that the act should allow us to meet the workers. However, we should not forget that more and more candidates are running for election.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Mr. Preston is next, and then Mr. Guimond.
We're going to have to wrap it up soon.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Through you, Mr. Chair, we're talking about the report.
All the report asked for was access to multi-residence buildings and gated communities. To that we've somehow added that we fully support the rest of this stuff: schools, shopping centres, and workplaces. I think we were asked to talk about gated communities, and we all agreed, as a committee, that we needed to add gated communities to what we would call multi-family residential buildings. I think there was some discussion by some of the three parties that were here about shopping centres. Other than that, I don't think we've gone into this discussion.
I think workplaces are handled by a permission-only situation, and should be. I don't think you enter anybody's workplace without asking if you can be there.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
6:25 p.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
I shall be brief. We are all elected. Would it be beneficial to make use of the Canada Elections Act and go see the owner of a small company that manufactures windows and doors and tell him that we demand entry? We must ask ourselves if this would be politically effective. We are talking about large shopping centres because the general public goes there. We are going to shopping centres, but not everyone--Ms. Brown has difficulty hearing me--is happy to see us, even in a shopping centre. They say they came here to shop in peace and not to be bothered by politicians.
When we go door to door, most people--let us face it--are polite and open their door. Maybe one or two percent refuse to open the door because they do not want to have anything to do with elections and politicians who are all the same. If we showed them the Elections Act and told them they are legally required to open their doors to us, do you think they would vote for us? Let us leave work places to the discretion of their owners.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
6:25 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Chair, I agree with both Mr. Preston and Mr. Guimond, in the sense that I was the one who originally brought in shopping centres--that is, to allow us to be inside the shopping centres, not necessarily the individual stores.
As far as the schools are concerned, my colleague can answer for himself, but if I remember rightly, we discussed schools not in regard to campaigning, but rather in regard to whether we could force them to accept Elections Canada on election day and have voting stations in schools. I don't see the advantage, as Mr. Guimond says, of forcing schools with our little booklet to say they have to.
As far as workplaces are concerned, I think we've developed a further step that entails all kinds of different problems. I think we have to leave it out of there, along with schools, shopping centres, with the gated communities--that's another story.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
There are some schools, obviously universities, that have voters inside them. Perhaps we should try to reword this and then bring it back to the committee, taking the workplace out of it. That, it seems to me, is the big contentious issue.
Are there any other issues?
Mr. Reid.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
I'll mention campuses. The University of Ottawa is a good example. Carleton University is a good example. Most university campuses are like this; there's lots of room to get in there without having anything written into the act. There's plenty of room; there are multiple buildings, public spaces, and university centres. There's just no need for this stuff.
In the case of a one-building school, meaning you would have to enter the building, I don't think we should have access. I might point out that all parties are respectable in a sense, but in addition to the parties that are advocating things we think are okay, do we really want the Marijuana Party of Canada having the right to have access to our schools? I think we ought to think that through.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
All right. We will reword this. Is that okay? No? You don't want to reword it?
You want schools out, and workplaces out?
