Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I just need to reiterate the comment that the Chief Electoral Officer made when he appeared before you, that he cannot have this bill in force three months from royal assent.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My name is Michèle René de Cotret. I am a lawyer and the Director of the Legislative Policy and Analysis Section at Elections Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it was Ms. Bradford who told you they are accepting statutory declarations on the streets in Vancouver. The lawyer who accepts the oath still has to have some degree of comfort that what the person is swearing to is true, that when they are saying this is my piece of iden

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the moment, let's deal with registration, but it's the same for voting. According to my understanding of the bill, at the moment, to register, you first have to have a government-issued document providing your address and identity and photo. They don't have that, so they immed

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At that point, you would have to produce two documents, each of which proves your identity and residence. The letter from the shelter is one of these documents. You'd need another one.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the moment, the way the statute is written, no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That letter from the shelter, at the moment, proves residence. They also need a piece to prove identity.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They need their health card or something. Assuming that they only have one piece, this is when we get to the third mechanism, which is swearing an oath, then having a person who is on the list of electors for this riding and has himself or herself proof of identity and residence

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Actually, if they don't have two pieces of ID, they don't need any. They go immediately to the third level.