Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, I agree with all that's been said, and I really don't mind the way the rule for Quebec reads in the document we have been handed. I continue to want to force the issue that the voter information card is in no way a piece of identification. It should not be used at the polls to the point that--I think Mr. Reid made the point that we should take the names off them. It can be mailed to an address to indicate that people at the address vote at a certain polling station, but it in no way identifies who a voter is at that address.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, date of birth. I heard date of birth, on the list only, not on the voter information card. All right, under recommendation 2.8, “Retention of Statutorily Authorized Personal Identifiers for Later Use”: Section 46 of the Canada Elections Act authorizes the Chief Electoral Officer to draw upon various sources of information to update the National Register of Electors, including: information that electors have provided to him, information held by government departments where the elector consents to the release of that information, and information collected pursuant to provincial statutes listed in Schedule II of the Act, provided the elector consents to the release of that information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We are told that the Chief Electoral Officer has expressed concern about discarded voter information cards being used by persons not eligible to vote. We're doing a lot of micromanagement now, but let's tell him that these dates are not to be put on the information cards mailed out to the voters.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Chief Electoral Officer has expressed concern about discarded voter identification cards.... Isn't that an information word? It's a voter information card, my apology. ...being used by persons not eligible to vote.... We've all been through this. A date of birth could be used as a cross-reference. I think the committee is quite aware of where this is going.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I suppose a comment might be made that it's up to this committee to decide what identification would be required at the polls. The voter information card is definitely not one of them. That's the impression I'm getting. But we will move to round two, five minutes, Mr. Proulx.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I thank Madam Picard for bringing up the idea of voter information—and other members are okay to bring that up again—but before we move past the voter information card, I'd like to ask the panel about two problems that have been presented. One is, as pointed out by Monsieur Guimond, that these voter cards are left at random in apartment buildings, in malls, and so on and so forth.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One of the solutions we thought we would incorporate, which is something that could be done now—and in light of the comments that were made around the table, we think we can be ready to do this should the election take place in December 2006 or later—would be to incorporate those voter information cards in an envelope addressed to each elector.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The committee has heard of cases where voters are using magazine subscriptions, or magazines with their addresses on them. We've heard that the voter information card is used as a voter identification card. What means are available to the deputy returning officer to not only prove the individual is that individual, but that the individual in fact has the right to vote in terms of citizenship?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The members around the table have all campaigned and, like me, have had occasion to observe that, in election campaigns, when we enter residential buildings, multiple-unit dwellings, at the entrance, where the mail boxes are, we see a series of voter information cards in the blue recycling bin or else outside scattered across the lawn. In the 2004 election, I brought back approximately 150 to the office of the returning officer. You know that's the preferred method for identifying voters.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Letter carriers simply take the cards and leave them at the entrance, so that anyone who goes to a polling station with the voter information cards of all the residents in his building can vote. If we had the date of birth, when a person whose date of birth was 1928 and who looked 20 presented himself, the clerk and the deputy returning officer could ask him questions to determine whether he is really the person registered.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We recommend that an effective process be established by Elections Canada and that the political parties be consulted with regard to that process. The next issue is voter identification cards, Mr. Chair. The misuse of voter information cards is quite simply out of control. We have reports of neighbourhoods where individual single-family dwelling mailboxes, not apartments, were systematically de-mailed of such cards, and with the greatest of respect to the Chief Electoral Officer when he appeared before you in April, he mischaracterized the entire problem.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Davidson that people can't take one of those voter cards and go vote--if I understood you correctly--our experience shows that's not true. If I get a voter information card that says I am Laurie Hawn and I live in Upper Rubber Boot and that I can go vote at poll whatever, if I show up with that card, walk in, and give them the card, they don't ask me any other questions.

Canada Elections Act  Elections Canada provided people with a kind of voting card. In buildings with 64 apartments, voter information cards were left in the lobby, just like any ad-bag, newspaper or flyer from Canadian Tire or Pharmaprix. Some people were literally going to every apartment building picking up those cards.