Evidence of meeting #24 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was candidate.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marc Mayrand  Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Stéphane Perrault  Senior General Counsel and Senior Director, Legal Services, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Thank you, Monsieur Mayrand, for being here.

I will follow up on Madam Foote's inquiry about sharing of information on voters lists. As I understand, there could be a non-compliance issue if someone shared a voters list with someone who is not authorized to receive it--a point well taken, no problem there.

However, let's get down to the basics here. The only reason most candidates really need the voters list is to try to go out and identify who their supporters are and who their non-supporters are. Are there any compliance issues if I as a candidate shared my identified vote with, say, a provincial or municipal candidate? If we're of similar political philosophies and I said that we've identified John Doe at this address as a supporter, I'm not sharing a voters list but I'm sharing with them my identified supporters list. Are there any problems with that?

11:35 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

Again, it all depends on specific circumstances. There may be an issue with it if it's based essentially on the information from the list of electors.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Everything could be considered information garnered from the voters list. Right? We're going out door-knocking and I knock on John Doe's door. His name appears on the voters list. I find out he's a supporter and I transfer that information to someone. Someone could make the argument that this is a result of the voters list. I would argue that no, it's not. I'm trying to identify support all over the riding.

11:35 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

Again, the information from the list is to be used for federal electoral purposes. That's another requirement in the legislation we need to keep in mind.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Sure. We have a grey area here.

Clearly, if John Doe lives in the riding of a federal candidate and also lives in the riding of a provincial candidate, and I just say that the John Doe who lives at 123 Elm Street is supporting me federally, and I give that information to the provincial candidate, who happens to be running in a like-minded fora, a like-minded political party, he could find that information out perhaps by himself. He doesn't need a voters list to find out that John Doe lives at 123.... Or he would have his own list from the provincial authorities. Right?

11:35 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

I'm sure you can appreciate that it's very difficult to give ruling on that hypothetical scenario without fully understanding all the circumstances.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Let's just agree to agree that there's a grey area there. It's not as cut and dried perhaps as someone may suggest.

11:35 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

What's clear is that the federal list of electors is for limited access and limited use in accordance with the purpose of the federal electoral process.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Yes, no argument there.

Let me go to a couple of other areas not necessarily contained in your report of today. I'm just curious, because these are issues that have come up before, Monsieur Mayrand, when you've appeared before the committee. I just want to get an update on the previous Liberal leadership candidates and their loans. The last time I believe we spoke there were still a number of outstanding loans that had not been repaid. Could you give us a quick update on the status of those now? Have all loans been repaid?

11:35 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

A number of candidates did obtain court extensions. Most of them have another 12 or maybe 18 months. I'll ask my colleague Mr. Bernier to supply additional information. Basically, candidates who still have loans outstanding have received court extensions.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Yes, I know about the extension, and that's fine. That's perfectly allowable. I just wondered whether there were still outstanding amounts there or not.

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

We'll see how much is outstanding when the next report comes in.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Okay.

Another issue not covered in your report is you mentioned the last time we spoke that your office was engaging in appeals of some recent court cases between the Conservative Party and Elections Canada. Are those appeals ongoing?

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

The appeal on the GST matter has been heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal, I think it was last June, and the decision could come out any time.

On the other matter before the Federal Court, dates have now been set for hearing the appeal at the end of November.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Could you give a ballpark figure on how much money your office may have spent on the appeal process to date?

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

On the appeal process itself, I could verify that further, but I believe we spent in terms of a combination of the GST and.... I'll ask my colleagues. I don't want to mislead you.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Ballpark.

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

I think last time we reported $1.3 million to the committee, and I think there have been some increases of around $300,000.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

I would imagine there would be. Are these budgeted figures?

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Are these budgeted amounts? Did you have an amount in your budget set aside?

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

No. That's something we have no choice about dealing with, so it depends on whatever it costs.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Well, your choice was whether you decided to appeal. Are you saying you had no choice but to appeal?

11:40 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

It was your decision.