Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 7th, 2014

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you, Mr. Christopherson.

We'll go to Mr. O'Toole, for four minutes, please.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, it's tough getting everything done in four minutes, so I'm timing myself.

Thank you all for appearing, particularly on behalf of your members. They're certainly engaged, and I appreciate your presentations.

I'll ask questions of two of you quite quickly, and I'll try to keep us on time.

First, Mr. Prud'homme, certainly all the interested political watchers in Canada, once they've finished watching us here, will turn and watch the Quebec election tonight, maybe a few more than are watching PROC.

Can you vouch in Quebec? Does Quebec have a voter information card that can be used as identification to vote at the polls today?

[Danis Prud'homme]

Yes. As I said this morning, I did use my voter information card basically to vote. That was good enough.

To answer the other question, yes, you can be vouched for basically in Quebec.

What we're looking at here is—

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Now, I have to correct you there. It's my understanding that in Quebec, beyond residency, you actually have to show an intention to remain in Quebec. Some of us have followed the students at McGill who certainly would not be getting a voter information card of any type, nor would their status qualify them to vote.

[Danis Prud'homme]

With regard to the students, you're right. With regard to seniors, if they live in long-term care or if they live in private residences, they can be vouched for. I'm not talking about the students; I'm talking about my members basically.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Okay, not the students.

[Danis Prud'homme]

It's in the process right now with the students—

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

So limited vouching would be the best description?

[Danis Prud'homme]

No, prior to this election, students didn't have any problems. I can't explain why this time around they did have problems.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Sure. Absolutely.

Ms. Eng, you're Toronto based. Certainly after the Quebec election maybe the Toronto mayoral election is one of the most interesting and watched races in Canada. Can you vouch in that municipal election on election day in Toronto?

[Susan Eng]

I don't have the answer. I don't know.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

The answer is no.

My second question goes a bit to voter engagement, and Mr. Kerwin, you raised that good point. We've heard testimony from some witnesses that ID or administration requirements actually have nothing to do with engagement. People decide either before or after to vote.

I have a suggestion, Ms. Eng. We've heard a lot about groups—seniors, students, first nations—that some people are suggesting would be disenfranchised by the elimination of vouching, even though the Neufeld report, which outlined significant errors of over 50% in vouching transactions in 2011, did not connect those 120,000 vouching cases to those groups.

A question I would ask of you, and maybe put out to your members, is this. In terms of annex C of the Neufeld report, the list of the 39 IDs we talk about—a shelter, soup kitchen, student or senior residence, long-term care facility, and we talked about the letter or attestation from them—if Elections Canada actually were to leverage this, could you not foresee a program where we would reach out through your network to inform administrators, to inform band councils, to actually, when the starting gun goes off for an election, produce an entirely new address-driven piece of identification to actually increase voter participation in all of those disenfranchised groups under the current rules, if Elections Canada took it upon themselves?

Do you have any comments on that suggestion under the rules now?

[Susan Eng]

To my knowledge, the staff at many of the seniors homes and nursing homes already put in extra effort to get people out to vote, to help them vote, to set up the event, all to make it easier for their residents to vote.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Can I jump in there quickly?

Many of the homes are owned by long-term care companies that own several of them.

[Susan Eng]

But the staff are pretty good about making sure—

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

But if we didn't engage directly with them at that high level, Elections Canada, encouraging that form of producing that ID for all of its members, they'd have it in hand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you. I'll allow an answer.

[Susan Eng]

That would be one more step that you would ask them to do instead of the time that they allot on voting day to actually vouch for their residents. It means having individual letters of attestation for each resident, which they'd have to set up, and the person would still need another piece of ID. Sometimes they may not even have that other piece of ID.

The point is that you're asking the staff to do a lot more than they already do, which is already beyond what they have to do in long-term care, as such. So, they are taking good time away from those other duties as it is. Adding that additional burden would seem to be an unnecessary step just so the whole issue of vouching can be eliminated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

Thank you all for coming. We will suspend for a couple of minutes while we change panels.

Mr. Prud’homme, thank you for coming on election night. I know you'd rather be home and watching, but we'll all get there eventually tonight, as well.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I call the meeting back to order. We're in the second half of tonight's study.

We have, from the Canadian Federation of Students, Jessica McCormick.

We have, from the Canadian Teachers' Federation, Calvin Fraser.

We have Élise Demers, and you're going to have to tell me the name of your group, please. My French is not as good as it should be, and I will apologize for that.

We're going to start off with opening statements just as we do in all our rounds.

Ms. McCormick, you have suggested you'll go first. We will do opening statements of five minutes or less and then we'll do questions from the members.

Thank you.

[Jessica McCormick, National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students]

I'd like to thank the committee members for allowing me to testify this evening.

My name is Jessica McCormick. I'm the national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada's largest and oldest student organization, uniting more than 600,000 students across the country.

Since Bill C-23 was tabled, students have been clear in their calls for substantial amendments to the bill. The elimination of vouching will directly disenfranchise many young voters.

Additionally, new restrictions on Elections Canada's ability to do outreach and promotion are of great concern.

Changes to voter identification regulations that will eliminate the use of vouching will serve as a barrier in accessing the polls for many groups, especially students. More than 100,000 Canadians used vouching in the last federal election. In fact, I am one of those thousands of voters who had many pieces of identification that are accepted by Elections Canada, but none that also included the address of the riding where I was living and voting. Luckily, Canada has a system in place to ensure that I wasn't denied my right to vote. However, if this bill is passed and vouching is eliminated, I know that many Canadians like me will be blocked from the ballot in the next election.

Under increasing debt loads, young Canadians are less likely to own a car and therefore less likely to have a driver's licence, one of the few pieces of identification accepted that includes both a photo and an address.

Students also move surprisingly frequently between home addresses with their parents, on-campus housing, or subletting an apartment for the summer, for example. Maintenance of one's current address on official ID is difficult and costly. In fact, Elections Canada noted in a survey of electors, following the 41st general election, that 40% of youth had moved at least once in the two years prior to that election.

Many young Canadians live with roommates, and while they are paying for utilities, the accounts may be in a roommate's name. For those with bills in their names, it is common to receive bills and notices online now rather than in the mail, and since electronic bills that are printed out at home are not acceptable forms of ID, proof of address becomes difficult.

Broad sweeping changes are being proposed with the argument that they will prevent voter fraud. However, evidence that links voter fraud to the vouching system has been greatly exaggerated and often refuted by the investigators of the reports cited by the Minister of State for Democratic Reform.

Despite low voter turnout, Canada's youth are highly politically engaged and deserve an electoral system that empowers us rather than suppressing our vote. Eliminating vouching and requiring strict proof of address is simply not a system that supports young Canadians' right to vote.

I warn you that if Bill C-23 is adopted in its current form, then the government will purposely deny students across the country our fundamental right. Currently under section 18 of the Canada Elections Act, Elections Canada is empowered to strengthen our democracy through public education and meaningful partnerships that enhance voter participation, as well as conduct research to improve voting.

When compared to peer nations, Canada already has some of the lowest voter turnout. In the last election, only 38.8% of youth ages 18 to 24 cast a ballot. In other words, 1.8 million young Canadians did not vote.

Since the last election, Elections Canada has been making efforts to better understand why turnout among this group is so low, and to develop and promote evidence-based strategies to increase youth voter turnout. For over a year the Canadian Federation of Students has engaged in a series of consultations and meetings with Elections Canada to expand and promote voting possibilities for youth. However, due to Bill C-23, a pilot project to expand polling stations on campuses, targeted engagement and advertising campaigns for youth, and mock elections to foster habits of young voters to cast a ballot may all be eliminated.

The changes contained in Bill C-23 will only serve to further cement the notion that politicians do not care about issues that affect youth. This decline in democratic participation is a clear threat to a healthy democracy and must be meaningfully addressed, not enhanced.

Studies have shown that electors who vote in their youth are more likely to vote throughout their lives. By eliminating current programs and efforts that address low youth voter turnout and curtailing options for new programs, the government is encouraging a generation of uninformed and disengaged citizens.

One must ask what the intent of this fair elections act really is. If the intent truly is to protect our democracy, then you must listen to the nearly 100,000 Canadians who have already added their voices to the opposition, and seek to understand the realities of students' lives. If our goal is to protect our democratic institutions and let people vote, then our efforts should be focused on reducing the barriers to voting, and not creating more.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Fraser, you have five minutes or less, please, for your opening statement.

[Calvin Fraser, Secretary General, Canadian Teachers' Federation]

Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to present our brief and our opportunity to share our concerns about Bill C-23 before this committee.

The Canadian Teachers' Federation is an alliance of 17 organizations representing nearly 200,000 teachers from coast to coast to coast.

While we agree in principle that the Canada Elections Act should be updated to address issues such as robocalls and unsolicited phone calls, we're concerned that this bill goes well beyond what is needed to support democratic participation.

Throughout Canadian history we've seen many amendments to the elections process to make voting easier, not harder, and to encourage more Canadians to vote in a federal election; however, Bill C-23 is the first that aims to restrict voting rights and discourage people from voting. If passed, Bill C-23 will end Elections Canada's civic literacy program in Canadian schools, undermine electoral participation, and stifle public debate.

Many of our teacher members have been involved in preparing their students to participate actively in their democracy through the student vote program organized by CIVIX. Teachers are also involved in national democracy week, in which CTF is a partner with Elections Canada.

In the 2008 and 2011 elections, Elections Canada provided 100% of the funding for the student vote program. In the last federal election, 15,000 Canadian teachers engaged 563,498 students in student vote in 3,750 schools. Since 2003, CIVIX has engaged 9,000 schools and three million students from across Canada in a parallel election process.

Based on this unquestionably successful program, why is Bill C-23 intent on preventing the promotion and education of students about their democratic right to vote? What message does Bill C-23 send teachers and students as it includes barriers, obstacles, and restrictions for so many Canadians?

Furthermore, we also ask why Bill C-23 is being rushed through the House of Commons without proper debate and consultation with the people of Canada whose rights are being affected. Democracy works best through debate, consultation, consensus building, and respect for diverse voices. The right to vote is at the heart of our democracy. Any attempt to change legislation governing voting rights must be done fairly and with great care in a non-partisan manner. As teachers, we welcome and invite the diverse voices of children, parents, and families in the education community.

Here are the recommendations of the Canadian Teachers' Federation:

We recommend that Bill C-23 be referred to a non-partisan committee consisting of equal representation from each political party with representation in the House and that the committee use a consensus decision-making model.

We recommend that Bill C-23 be amended to ensure that Canadian elections are a transparent process and that Elections Canada's educational programming, including full funding in support of civic education, the student vote program, and other public education outreach initiatives be maintained.

We recommend that Bill C-23 add the voter information card, VIC to the current list of valid ID and provide the authority and funding to Elections Canada to enable it to hire and fully train all election workers for elections well before each election, and to make the voter registration list and ID checking even more accurate.

If passed, Bill C-23 will build potential partisanship, create an unbalanced elections process in Canada, and will further alienate an electorate whose participation rates are already low. We therefore invite the committee and the government to either amend the bill as we and others have suggested, or withdraw it in its entirety and then initiate a fair process for reform.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you, Mr. Fraser.

Ms. Demers, please, you have five minutes or less.