Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's a voter information card. It is not an identification card.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We've also instituted special measures in our computer programs, to detect this problem from now on, but this has been a problem that surfaced particularly during this campaign. In terms of Canada Post, we pay first-class postage rates for the voter information cards. There is no voter card in this country. It's a voter information card. It's information that is provided. That card does not entitle one to vote. It certainly does not entitle one to vote multiple times.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We changed our advertising program, which was mostly legalistic and very repulsive—that is the expression—to something that is more user friendly, and that enticed people to vote. We also, for the very first time in a provincial election, used voter information cards. It had never been done before, but people expect it now; they see it federally, they see it municipally, so they should see it provincially as well. It's a combination of many efforts, and scholars will tell us later on what was the true reason.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Then a little more, which is that it looks like about a quarter had kept the material that was sent to their houses, a little more than that on the requirement for information, and the voter information card, which was still sent to everybody, appeared to be the principal source of information. In terms of newspaper and radio advertising, the reach was fairly small. But overall, the communications campaign was somewhat successful, is what I would call it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I were to make a suggestion to Elections Canada, based on what I see here, the main information people seem to turn to is the voter information card that is sent to their home. The newspaper ads and radio ads are less effective.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  These new requirements were designed to ensure that those who vote during elections are actually legitimate voters. With the new requirements, people will no longer be able to pick up voter information cards abandoned at apartment building entrances, and vote under the name of a different voter. There will also be no way to vote in a riding where the voter works, rather than in the riding where the voter lives, in order to support a particular candidate in a particularly tight race.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I thought you would stick with the proof of identity—on that, I was in complete agreement. As regards the voter information card, there was a project—and we will have to check on this—to put the cards into an envelope with a window, so that we could have even more control over what happened to them. We would have to check how far that project got, I do not remember that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Under the former act, you had calculated that 5% of people would not be able to vote, but under the new act, I think we will be losing more people, and that is unfortunate. Second, there has been a recommendation that the voter information card be placed in an envelope. I would like to hear your views on that. My third question has to do with people's birth date. Is that information necessary? We think that the provision of the birth date opens the door to other abuse, because everyone will know the voter's birth date.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  --in other words, we tried to identify people who appeared to have lived outside Edmonton Centre and voted within-- Almost all had received a voter information card listing a business address in Edmonton Centre. Further analysis indicated that the addresses of these 21 electors had been updated in the National Register of Electors based on information that they had provided to the Canada Revenue Agency or the Alberta Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If you weren't sophisticated, you might think, having received two voter information cards, that you could vote twice.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You referred to the by-elections in London North Centre and Repentigny, and you said that Canada Post helped recover the voter information cards. What is done with these cards? I know that Canada Post does not offer "recovery" services everywhere. Is Elections Canada concerned about recovering the documents rather than having them thrown in the garbage?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  However, I would first like to inform the committee about the initiatives that my office launched in recent by-elections held on November 27 in London North Centre and Repentigny that are tied to the objectives sought by Bill C-31, and that are most relevant. First, to reduce the risk that poll officials would accept voter information cards as proof of identity, my office instructed election workers to collect them at the entrance to the polling station. That suggestion was made here, at the committee. Second, we modified the notice posted at the polls informing electors about the qualifications for voting to include a warning that it was an offence to vote unlawfully and to indicate the maximum punishment for doing so—up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If the committee wished to make an exception for hospitals in remote areas, it would have to amend the statute. This is something the committee should consider. With respect to the VIC, voter information card, it is still being sent to people. Some are being thrown away. I'm having discussions right now with the president of Canada Post to see how we could prevent those cards from circulating.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Frankly, our next item of business, that we've already agreed to, is that we will advertise at polls the offences of lying about that. On top of that, I would like to have wording in there that voter information cards, magazine subscriptions, hydro bills, etc., are not acceptable forms of identification. Are we happy with that? We'll bring the wording back to the committee—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That we simply add to the clause that voter information cards, magazines subscriptions, etc., are not acceptable pieces, simply to clarify that, no, you can't use these. Okay? That's how I'm proposing we reword this, and we'll discuss it further on Tuesday.