Procedure and House Affairs committee  Returning officers will need to be appointed for each of the two maps and make preparations for both. IT systems and databases—some 95 in total are required to produce, for example, voter information cards, to pay poll workers and to publish election night results—will also need to be adjusted to reflect and operate under the different maps. In the spring of 2024, if no election has been called during the seven-month period after the proclamation of the representation order, we will need at that point to be able to pivot overnight and be ready to hold an election, should one be called, based on the new map.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We often chalk that up to people who generally aren't registered, because they don't get their voter information card. That's where most people remember what their voting options are. It's an individual card addressed to them with what their individual voting options would be. Some segments of the population will have less knowledge.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Those who are missing are mainly young Canadians. Those are Canadians who have not received a voter information card to give them basic information about where, when and how to cast a ballot. That is certainly an area of priority for us. As Ms. Torosian has explained, we also support groups by providing information on the voting process to groups that work with Canadians who face barriers, and those include young Canadians.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not only was it difficult to find polling stations, but we were also late getting the voter information cards, which must include the polling station. I would say that was the main consequence. We also note in the report that, because we had four fewer days than the previous election, the percentage of mail‑in ballots that were received late and therefore not counted rose from 1.5% to 7.1%.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  However, it might happen that some words can be written in three dialects. Another idea would be to write certain words on the voter information card that you send to the communities. It might be titles or subtitles only. It might also be words of welcome placed in the locations where people go to vote. When you do advertising, you could include certain First Nations languages.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is commendable that Elections Canada has taken some initiatives to address the issue. For example, in the 2019 election, Elections Canada translated the voting guide, voter information cards and some other material into Inuktitut, and their information campaign included ads in Inuktitut among other things. To date, however, Inuktut is not on the ballot, and the efforts by Elections Canada are inconsistent, ad hoc and depend on the goodwill of the staff of the day.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In example four, the name of the organization, Elections Canada, was not provided in Inuktut on the voter information card. In example five, we are experiencing COVID, and the “mask required” sign posted on a door during election day was only in English. My office has also received concerns that syllabics were not printed on the federal ballots, even though the current laws do not require this.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the Chief Electoral Officer's Report on the 44th General Election of September 20, 2021, and the National Register of Electors: (a) in respect of the 92.3% accuracy of registered electors' addresses, as mentioned on page 41 of the report, (i) how many electors are represented by the remaining 7.7%, in total and broken down by electoral district, (ii) how many of the electors referred to in (i) were sent a voter information card; and (b) in respect of Elections Canada's registration letter campaign targeted to "select regions with lower youth coverage", which electoral districts were selected?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Through you, I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here today. I have a question with respect to voter information cards. In the report provided to the committee, the issue of voter information cards, VICs, was highlighted on the bottom of page 16 and on the top of page 17, where there was a delay in mailing them out because of the fact that Elections Canada did have difficulty securing polling places.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, obviously the lateness of the voter information cards is not something that we wished for. I think it's important to have them early, but they are dependent on the ability to confirm a poll. Without those polls, they were delayed by one week.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. Madam Chair, the report noted that there was a delay in issuing voter information cards. In some contexts, they were arriving the week of the election. Madam Chair, does Elections Canada believe that voter participation would have been higher had the VICs been received in mailboxes across Canada at an earlier date?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is unfortunate that some are still under the impression that they cannot vote without a voter information card. Clearly that is not the case. Similarly, I have to say that I am somewhat surprised that electors still believe you need an excuse or reason to vote at advance polls. It's been many years, and as I said earlier, we've gone from 3.5% to 35%.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  However, once the election was called, several landlords who had earlier indicated they would rent to us reversed their decision in the context of the emerging fourth wave. Difficulties in confirming polling locations led to delays in issuing voter information cards. This did not prevent us from increasing the number of advance polls by 18% to meet an expected increase in early voting. But it did have an impact on services on polling day, especially in some urban centres—around Toronto in particular—where the scarcity of polling places led to longer wait times.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In some states in the U.S., for example, you don't even register. By default, you get a ballot sent to you in the mail. You're already sending voter information cards to every elector, is that correct?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In it he recognized Canada Post's efforts in delivering 4,300 monotainers of election material and thousands of special ballot bags to run the election while at the same time ensuring that 27 million voter information cards and 15.4 million federal election guides were distributed to Canadians in a timely manner. During every writ period, we're also proud to deliver a surge of personal mail and direct mail from candidates who are looking to quickly and effectively get their messages into the hands of the voters.