Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 25th, 2010

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Is there a role that we as members of Parliament could assume in this, in terms of getting the word out to our constituency high schools to encourage them to go on your website to find out how they can participate?

[Marc Mayrand]

I would think so. Current members of Parliament as well as former parliamentarians would, I think, be welcome in schools to do a short presentation on what democracy is, what it means for us, and what the responsibility of a citizen is in a democracy. I know that Student Vote, during the short time that it runs, solicits candidates to go to speak to students.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

And I've been a part of it. My concern is for those who aren't participating. Are there ways that we could encourage those schools to participate? Could we go in six months before....? We don't always have six months notice, and I know that, but—

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Who are you telling this to?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

We could maybe go right now, when there's not even a threat of an election.

[Marc Mayrand]

It doesn't have to be during a campaign or just before a campaign.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

If there could be a packet of materials developed, I think many members would welcome that opportunity.

[Marc Mayrand]

I will certainly take this under advisement.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I don't know whether I still have time for that other question relating to the reduction of duplication with territorial and provincial electoral districts.

[Marc Mayrand]

We're seeking to work more and more closely with other electoral bodies across the country, provincial and territorial ones. We're already collaborating on a number of areas, such as civic education: rather than each organization running its own program, making those programs more complementary. Provincial organizations have easier access to the school system than federal organizations have, so we're working with other bodies.

On a bit of a longer term, and there will be a recommendation in my report around this, we would like to go a step further and start sharing resources, costs, and risks. I mentioned the technology we're looking at over the next several years. That requires a large investment on our part. Elections Ontario right now has also been mandated to test i-voting by 2012. The idea here is, why don't we share those development costs and share the benefits. That will require some changes in the legislation to facilitate that cooperation, but it's certainly an area we'd like to pursue.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I'll share the rest of my time with Mr. Lauzon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

There are five seconds.

Thank you very much.

Monsieur Bigras, I'm very happy to have you here today. It's your turn.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm delighted to be taking part in this committee.

Good morning, and welcome to you, Mr. Mayrand, and to your colleagues.

My questions more particularly concern page 5 of your document. In the section entitled, “Improvements for Electors”, one of the points reads as follows: “improving our methods and approaches for election officer recruitment and training.” I suppose that proposed improvement is based on the findings you have made, particularly with your returning officers. It appears they are having a lot of difficulty recruiting staff in certain constituencies or regions.

Is this need for improved recruitment based on a report that the returning officers submitted to you on the difficulty involved in recruiting election staff?

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes, that's one of the findings that was made during the last general election. I mentioned it in the report immediately following the election and in the evaluation reports. There are administrative measures that we can take.

Two problems emerged during the 40th election. The first is recruitment. This is subject to all kinds of statutory requirements that should be reviewed. In addition, with regard to training, much has been made of the lack of standardization in the application of rules. So we have made an effort to revise our training programs. We tried to simplify them where that was possible and we opted for somewhat different training techniques.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

I'd like to go back to the first aspect. I just understood that the recruitment changes would require legislative revisions.

Are you about to make recommendations to us on amendments to the act? Which officials would be affected? Would that range from scrutineers to revising officers? What positions in the electoral process would be concerned?

[Marc Mayrand]

The revising officer, deputy returning officer, scrutineer and clerk positions. These are the main positions for which we have to do a lot of recruitment in very little time.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

When you say clerks, does that include scrutineers?

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes. We've observed that barely 33% of our election workers are recommended by the political parties. That percentage is constantly declining. Under the act, the returning officer must wait until the 17th day before starting to recruit, independently of the political parties. We're suggesting slightly different terms and conditions to enable the returning officers to start recruiting earlier. That would solve part of the problem.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

The returning officer still has the power. If he started the process, the political parties would no longer be called upon to submit a list of recommendations.

[Marc Mayrand]

We propose to replace the waiting period, which is until the 17th day. The reason why we have to wait until the 17th day is that the candidates have to be confirmed. The act currently provides that the candidates refer the workers.

So our report will propose that responsibility for recommending staff be transferred to the constituency associations rather than wait until the 17th day. We would start on the 36th day to identify staff who could be recommended by the local associations. So we could conduct recruiting from that moment, instead of waiting for two weeks.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Unless I'm mistaken, a clerk or a scrutineer must be an elector from the constituency where he or she is recommended. That greatly limits the potential.

Has consideration been given to permitting recruitment in adjacent constituencies?

[Marc Mayrand]

On an exceptional basis, the Chief Electoral Officer may authorize it. We avoid doing so because, ultimately, it often amounts to piracy among constituencies. However, where it becomes necessary, and if the situation lends itself to that, we authorize the recruitment of personnel from outside the constituency. It's nevertheless a last resort.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much.

Monsieur Lauzon, for just a couple of minutes, please. Then we have committee business to deal with.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Mayrand.

I have a few questions to ask. You suggested a lot of improvements in your report. I think these are good improvements and that they will encourage electors to vote.

Do you think that advertising to encourage people to vote is the responsibility of Elections Canada? It's a good thing for it to be easier to vote, but do these electors have the necessary motivation to go to the polling stations?

Is it Elections Canada's responsibility to do something to increase voter participation?