Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 6th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 11 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3), the committee is meeting, for the first hour, on its study of challenges regarding special ballot voting, and for the second hour, on the study of forms and procedural and interpretative guidelines from the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner—very exciting—and we'll provide drafting instructions to our analysts.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

Before I continue, I would ask all in-person participants to consult the guidelines written on the back of the cards on the table. These measures are in place to help prevent audio and feedback incidents, and to protect the health and safety of all participants, including the interpreters. There's a QR code with a video; please take time to review it.

I have a few comments for the benefit of the members.

As a reminder, all comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, raise your hand. For members on Zoom, you know the drill. Raise your hand please.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses for today's meeting.

As an individual, we have Daniel Scuka.

Representing Grits Abroad is Dr. Timothy Veale, director.

You each have five minutes.

Dr. Veale, I understand that you're going first.

[Timothy Veale, Director, Grits Abroad]

Good evening from Hong Kong and good morning to each of you.

First of all, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Timothy Veale.

I'm going to describe a problem facing our country and our citizens.

Let me give you some numbers for context. Nearly five million Canadians live outside the country as part of the Canadian diaspora. That makes our diaspora the size of Canada's fifth-largest province, or over 10% of the national population. There are almost 400,000 Canadians just where I am now in Hong Kong alone.

If 72% of the Canadian citizens abroad are eligible to vote—that is, the same as resident Canadians—then almost 3.5 million Canadian expatriates were eligible to vote this past federal election, but only 100,000 voting kits were applied for, with just over half—or 57%—returned. That's a really low conversion rate.

One hundred thousand people wanted to vote but couldn't. That shows a technical problem. With only 57,000 voters out of the entire amount, it's just over a 1% turnout. That's not okay. That's a 1.7% voter participation rate, to be precise, and that is just not acceptable. This shows a structural problem.

By comparison, Americans abroad outvote us by eight to one. Imagine that as a score in the Stanley Cup finals or in a game in the recent World Series or at the Olympics. The French, the Italians and the Portuguese overseas, by comparison, also outvote us, but this time by up to 35 to one.

However, the diaspora of Canadian citizens is growing and is already larger than that of the French, the Italians and the Portuguese. In fact, it's almost as big as the American diaspora, yet they all outvote us by a wide margin, so we have a problem.

There are three main barriers causing this problem. The first is technical, the second is structural and, finally, the third is political. Not fixing them is causing damage to our nation.

First are the technical barriers. We have limited voting mechanisms. Non-resident Canadians must vote by mail only, with no electronic or official in-person voting options. Voting kits can be mailed out only after the writ has been issued. Now, a 38-day campaign was not designed for voters abroad to achieve better than—as we've seen recently—a 57% conversion rate. It just wasn't designed for this. We voters—Daniel and I—must do three things.

We have to apply to register to vote. We have to wait for that approval to be posted back to us with a voting pack sent via the postal system of any one of 200 countries on the planet. As I'm sure everybody can appreciate, not all countries have effective postal systems. That's getting the packet to us. Then we have to have our vote posted back by the same challenged postal systems to Elections Canada by the deadline in time for it to be counted. A 38-day campaign, again, was just not designed for this.

I hope my vote was counted. I actually don't have that certainty. I hope that I was one of the 57% whose votes were counted. I applied for mine early. I just don't know. We lack the modern infrastructure—digital, regional and logistical—needed to accommodate a global electorate.

Second are the structural barriers. We have no direct representation in Parliament. Unlike France, Italy and Portugal, which have dedicated overseas MPs, Canada provides no parliamentary seats for non-resident citizens.

No one contacts us seeking our vote, not once, not ever, yet decisions impacting us, like, for example, the citizenship of our future family members, are being made by elected politicians: nothing about us without us, please.

This has impacts, including, of course, exclusion from the political process. Many non-resident Canadians are in effect disenfranchised by what could be considered unintended yet structural gerrymandering. It has led to the erosion of democratic legitimacy. The effect weakens Canada's claim to democratic inclusivity and equality, especially given our self-image as a global defender of democratic norms.

This creates missed opportunities for engagement, investment and nation building among a large and talented diaspora. Solutions, in fact, can also have geopolitical implications benefiting Canada.

I will wrap up with some solutions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Can you wrap it up in the next few seconds? You are over time. You'll have plenty of opportunity to answer questions as well.

[Timothy Veale]

Okay.

The third problem is political barriers. The solution, I hope, is that dialogue right now, like this, will help us begin to overcome these.

I will wrap it up right there. I'd be happy to take any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that it's either midnight or 1 a.m. in Hong Kong. The committee does appreciate your testimony.

Mr. Scuka, you have five minutes, please.

[Daniel Scuka, As an Individual]

Good morning, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear and provide my thoughts on problems related to special ballot voting, as well as on the challenges faced by Canadian voters living abroad.

My name is Daniel Scuka. I am dialling in to you from Germany. I was born and grew up in Toronto. Following my service in the Canadian Forces, I have lived outside of Canada since 1994—in Japan and now in Germany, near Frankfurt.

I presently work for the European Space Agency at the mission control centre, where I am one of only two Canadians and the only one who was miserable on Monday, as my compatriot is inexplicably not a Blue Jays fan.

I mention my baseball gloom partly as part of my post-defeat therapy and, more importantly, to highlight the fact that today the flow of news, the connections between Canada and the rest of the world, and between we Canadians wherever we are, are broad, deep and instantaneous. Those of us outside of Canada used to live an ocean or two away. Now we live a mouse click away.

In 2019 we could all celebrate the Supreme Court ruling that Canadians living abroad have the same right to vote in federal elections as those living in Canada. In my opinion, this established and reconfirmed the right to vote. It's a profound and fundamental element of Canadian citizenship, as well as identity.

Thanks to subsequent enabling legislation—and I think a lot of work by Elections Canada—first steps to implement overseas voting have been put into place. Since 2019, as my friend, Dr. Veale, has mentioned, we have been some of the almost 3.5 million Canadians outside Canada who have been able to vote.

There is now a register of international electors. There is routine email and telephone contact with Elections Canada. The mechanism to vote by postal mail has been strengthened and made more robust, but a right permitted is not automatically a right that is fully exercised, as Dr. Veale has so clearly pointed out with his numbers.

Overseas voters constitute sufficient numbers to sway the outcome of elections in any number of constituencies across our country, reminding all of us that in a healthy democracy, every vote counts.

In addition to Dr. Veale's comments on structural and technical barriers, I would like to emphasize the following points.

As far as I can see, few, if any, candidates commit time or resources during election campaigns to communicating their platform, ideas or messaging, or to engaging with voters outside of their constituencies. You, as election winners, will know better than I do, but I believe that no candidate in the heat of a campaign—particularly a 30-day or 40-day campaign—automatically thinks about voters outside of the geographical boundaries of their riding. Traditionally, there was no need to. Today there is.

As a result, any candidate who has a strong digital presence on social media, on their own website or via the party's website—whether it be a podcast, virtual town halls or what have you—has an inherent advantage over a candidate who does not. This is a very strong argument, as Dr. Veale mentioned, for the creation of dedicated seats in the House of Commons to represent overseas voters where the candidates will be fully focused on the overseas communities.

I can find no confirmation in public sources as to whether, when it provides candidates with a list of electors in each constituency, Elections Canada identifies to the candidates which of those or how many of those are overseas voters. This should be done automatically.

The current mail-only ballot system places the risk of ensuring timely return on the voter. I have paid the equivalent of $60 Canadian in the past to make sure my ballot got back in time because it took so long for it to get to me.

I fully endorse and urge the committee to consider amendments to existing legislation that would enable Elections Canada to offer any mix of in-person voting or ballot drop-off at consulates or embassies, ballot return via tracked courier envelopes that are potentially prepaid, and the issuance of ballots and returned material via a digital platform.

Elections Canada should also support overseas voting as digitally as possible. A minimum would be to enable voters overseas to log in and track the status of their ballots. Like Dr. Veale, I have no idea if my ballot in the April election was, in fact, counted or even received.

I'll sum up.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today, and thank you especially to the technical and administrative team who set this up.

I wish to thank all members of the committee for your attention to this vital and foundational question related to voting by Canadians overseas. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much. I appreciate you bringing up our collective Blue Jays trauma. I also have not gotten over it, but I'm glad there are also people overseas suffering from the same fate.

We'll now turn to Mr. Cooper from the Conservatives for six minutes please.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses.

Mr. Scuka, I'll ask a question to pick up from where you left off at the conclusion of your statement. You suggested amendments to the Canada Elections Act in terms of voting by means other than mail, including at embassies. I'm looking at section 228 of the Canada Elections Act, and that's already there.

[Daniel Scuka]

Thank you for pointing that out. I could not find that confirmation that you found, but, moreover, that's just one channel. That it can be allowed and that it is allowed is great. There is also ballot drop-off and, for those of us Canadians who are not in the proximity of an embassy or consulate, even if it would be allowed but I couldn't get there, being able to send my ballot back via a tracked courier, again, potentially prepaid; that would be extremely helpful. What I'm arguing for is to broaden the channels by which the voters can return their ballots.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Thank you for that.

Reference has been made to barriers. I take your point, Mr. Scuka, that you've spent $60 to return a ballot. That could be a barrier.

The process of signing up to vote as a Canadian abroad couldn't be much easier. It's a one-page form. You sign it, you provide proof of the fact that you were born in Canada and that you're a Canadian citizen. You can provide a copy of your passport, a citizenship certificate or card, or a birth certificate, and then you send it to Elections Canada. How much easier could it be?

[Daniel Scuka]

It isn't that there is any one specific element that is a barrier. It's the full process that is not encouraging a significant number of Canadian voters to vote, and as Dr. Veale has pointed out, the numbers speak for themselves.

Yes, as you say, it's that one form, but I have two dozen emails with Elections Canada from the last couple of years to pin down what my final address was. This is a big issue, because Elections Canada ties you to the constituency in which you last resided, but that is not a clear thing, surprisingly. Furthermore, after 20-some odd years outside of a country, that relation, for me or for any particular voter, becomes a little bit fuzzy.

It isn't one specific thing; it's the entire process of getting the kit into my mailbox in front of my street and then getting it back in a timely fashion, and then having faith in what Elections Canada does. It's solid, but I don't know; did my vote arrive? I get nothing back from Elections Canada. Again, it isn't any one thing, as you point out; it's the full process, and I think Dr. Veale's numbers really speak to that.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Just to clarify, once you fill out the application and your name is added to the international register of electors, a ballot kit will be issued to you at the time of each writ period, and you would not need to apply again and again. Am I correct in that?

[Daniel Scuka]

You are correct.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Therefore, I presume you're receiving a ballot kit fairly early on during the writ period. Is that fair? Is that happening?

[Daniel Scuka]

In the most recent campaign where the writ was announced, it was a total of 37 to 39 days for the campaign—please don't quote me on the numbers—and it took several weeks to get it into my mailbox. It took me some time. I'm a voter. I want to consider all the candidates. I have to spend time looking up who is running in my riding. I want to find out about them. As I mentioned, the candidates who have a stronger digital presence really get my attention quicker, regardless of party and regardless of affiliation.

I had to make my decision, fill out my ballot, and send it back with tracking, because I wanted to know whether it got there. In the end, the tracking failed. Again, as Dr. Veale mentioned, the timing of our campaign seems to be getting tighter and tighter, and yet the traditional postal mail system....

Why can't Elections Canada simply have a platform where I can log in, and then, 24 hours after the writ is issued, download—as my wife, who is an American voter, can—the PDF of the ballot? I could simply print it here, fill it out and mail it back right away. Why do I have to wait for a piece of paper to come from Canada?

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much.

Ms. Brière, please go ahead.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses. I will ask my questions in French, so make sure you have selected the right channel, please.

Dr. Veale, you talked about technical problems, structural problems and political problems, but you didn't have time to elaborate on your thoughts on political problems.

I'd like to give you the time to finish what you had to say on that subject.

[Timothy Veale]

Thank you very much for this opportunity to further extend what I wish to share. I appreciate this question.

I didn't get a chance to finish some points about what we view as solutions. Fixing the technical problems, fixing inefficient voting methods, might get us to voting rates comparable to the Americans, let's say, who are outvoting us eight to one. But even those results are still in the single digits, so I'm not totally convinced that this is simply a technical issue. I think it has to do more with the structural issue.

As we see in the European nations I referenced, the voting turnout is up to 35 times what ours is. I believe that's due to the representation they experience in their respective parliaments. Fixing a lack of representation and giving us members of Parliament to represent us directly modernizes our democracy and can add untapped strength—financial strength, geopolitical strength—to our nation building.

The first two problems, technical and structural, I think can be relatively easily overcome. It's the political barriers, which, as I quickly referenced earlier, I hope our dialogue right now can help us to begin to overcome. It's just a matter of will. We have seen that. The data supports this. There is a need for change. I think Canada will only be better for this. Our country will be better for it if we care.

You know, a precedent has been set. It's not that we have to reinvent the wheel here. More than a dozen countries from around the world already do this. I've just cited three. There is a precedent.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you very much.

Dr. Veale and Mr. Scuka, you both mentioned that voter turnout among people of other nationalities, such as French, Italian and Portuguese, was much higher than ours.

Do you think there are reasons other than technical and structural ones for that? Do you think people of those nationalities are more willing to exercise their right to vote even if they are abroad?

[Timothy Veale]

Daniel, would you like to go ahead?

[Daniel Scuka]

Sure.

Just to take one step back, we're still in the early days of Canadians overseas having an unfettered right to vote and being able to exercise that right. It's just been a few years and a few election cycles since 2019. I'm willing to bet that a large number of Canadians living overseas—and that number's only growing because of Canada's engagement in the world, and it's a much-needed engagement—are actually unaware and, indeed, don't have the confidence that their vote makes a difference. We see that, in Canada itself, many voters feel that their vote doesn't make a difference, and they're living right in their home constituency.

I think it's going to take some time. It will take some efforts from Elections Canada and from politicians of all stripes, all parties and candidates, to campaign towards those Canadians outside of the country. It will take a success, a candidate winning in an election, who stands up and says, “I won my election because I got votes from those Canadians outside. It really made a difference.” That full cycle is going to have to play out.

What I think we're arguing for here today is that we begin that process, we strengthen what Elections Canada can do and we educate. Both Dr. Veale and I are committed to educating our fellow Canadians—we're just voters ourselves, we're nobody special—and people do have to take a bit of responsibility for their own voting, to exercise their right.

Really, I was very impressed, in the last election, with how one candidate in my constituency had a very strong digital presence that was already in place when the writ dropped. That candidate did not have to build up a new channel to reach overseas voters. I knew who that candidate was in a few days. The other candidates didn't have that.

We also have to educate candidates by saying, “Hey, you have significant numbers of voters living outside of the country. You have to reach them somehow, just like you have to reach everybody else in your constituency.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you.

Ms. Normandin, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank both witnesses for being with us, especially Dr. Veale, who is joining us from Hong Kong, where it's late.

My first question is for Mr. Scuka.

You said that, in some cases, it has been difficult to establish the last residential address of a Canadian citizen. I'd like you to tell us more about what kind of evidence is required to establish a citizen's last address and last riding of residence.

[Daniel Scuka]

In principle, it's a straightforward process, and Dr. Veale will know this as well. On the form mentioned earlier that you file with Elections Canada, you simply state what your last address was.

For a Canadian who has recently moved out of Canada, that's a black and white, very straightforward position. I've not lived in Canada since 1994. My last address in Canada was for the two years that I lived in Ottawa, when I was a member of the Canadian Forces and was stationed in National Defence headquarters. My address was in Ottawa Centre.

That was the only time in my life, for two years, that I was connected to Ottawa Centre. For those two years, I was stationed in Ottawa. I moved out. I don't have any friends in Ottawa. I probably have some classmates or somebody I could find.

I grew up in Beaches—East York. That's where I go. That's the centre of Toronto. My family lives there. My friends live there. I know the candidates. I know some of the issues on the ground. I don't know what the voters of Ottawa Centre are concerned about. It must be something, but I have no idea what.

I was able to contact Elections Canada, and on the basis that I only lived in Ottawa Centre for two years, I wrote them a long letter. They agreed that I could state the last address where I lived in Beaches—East York. That was the house where my mother...where I grew up. She has since passed away, many years ago. The house has long since been sold. I have no connection to that house. I went for a run in May, when I was back in Canada, and I ran down the street to look at it. It looks weird to me these days.

The house where I have a connection is where my uncle lives. That's where I stay when I come to Toronto, so I asked Elections Canada if I could switch to that address, within the same riding. There were a dozen emails. They became very confused and asked me why I wanted to change the address. I said that if they were going to send me anything, I didn't even know anybody who lived at my old address.

My point is—and I don't want to go into arcana here—that tying my vote to a location where I have zero connection and where there is no mechanism to change.... In the United States, my wife is a U.S. voter, and once a year, she can change her district within her state because things change.

If you want me to be interested in the candidates, as a voter, and if you want me to take an interest in some part of Canada because I'm tied to that, please let it be the riding in which I do have a connection.

Thank you.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I have a follow-up question for you, if I may.

You mentioned that your wife can change her district once a year. Do you think there's a risk that we'll start choosing the ridings that suit us? As we saw in the last election, every vote counts. One vote can make a difference.

In your opinion, what protection mechanism could prevent that kind of choice when the vote is close?