Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 15th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

If I may just interject, when we ask for photo ID or for two alternative pieces of identification, my notes say that they would have to incorporate name and address and that we are implying that magazine subscriptions are not proof of address.

Are you okay with that, Mr. Simard?

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

That's what they do. They make tons of labels, put them on magazines and walk into five different places.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That's the point that we have to make very clear. I think that's the obvious situation. However, if you're comfortable with that, we'll come up with the proper wording.

I will take two more comments on this, because I don't want to leave it go.

Mr. Reid, you had your hand up, and then we'll have Mr. Proulx.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Actually, you dealt with it, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

You're good?

Mr. Proulx.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

As a proof of address, maybe we should revert to what it is now and say utility bills, not magazines. Maybe we could talk about utility bills.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

A number of people in this room have a home in their constituency and a home in Ottawa where they pay utility bills that come in their names. So a utility bill actually doesn't really accomplish that goal. Currently, I'm getting three or four utility bills.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

We'll reword it and move on.

We do seem to be doing well. However, I think we'll stop here.

Are there any further comments? We're kind of running out of time anyway. The committee has done exceptionally well. This has been a marathon, but it has been very creative, very thoughtful, and there have been great comments.

I would like to remind the committee that Tuesday's meeting is the next meeting. It will be the final meeting. You will receive the next draft report, which will be very close to the final version, on Monday afternoon. I would ask the committee to tell me whether that meeting is in camera or in public. I'm suggesting that it's in camera, since we're dealing with a final version. I'm getting lots of nods.

The next meeting will be Tuesday at 11 o'clock. It will be in camera.

Mr. Proulx.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

About the wording on 1.14--this is the one about gated communities and shopping centres and excluding schools and so on--when are we going to look at that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That's on our list to review next week. We're going to remove some of it and change this wording.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

In the meantime, Mr. Chair, I received--and I think a lot of the members received--a communication from Mrs. Fry, who is suggesting that we go one step further and that we:

...propose that the Canada Elections Act be amended to require managers of apartment buildings, condominium buildings and other multiple residence buildings, to post, in a location accessible to the public, a phone number which candidates or their representatives could use to arrange a date and time to canvass the building.

I don't think we should burden owners and force them to do this. I think it's up to us to contact the buildings and explain the law. This is an additional burden. But I wanted it put on the record, unless somebody else thinks it's a great idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

It is duly noted that the committee has heard that and we are not in favour of it for those reasons.

Any further discussion?

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

We'll bring new ideas next week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Please bring all the new ideas, and we'll just go into the summer.

Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.