Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, but my understanding of issues like the Privacy Act and others is that there has to be an explicit approval given to be able to share information. You might want to consult the Privacy Commissioner on that, but I think there has to be a specific provision in order to do that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that moving the commissioner is feasible. I mean I think that he will be able to carry out investigations. There is the question of exchange of information and the efficiency, and the commissioner raised other issues, but obviously I think that exchange of information and

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. That's a question you would have to ask the government, obviously. I believe such a provision is needed. Political parties receive substantial reimbursements, in the order of $33 million. People are held accountable for far lesser amounts. We live in an age of accountability

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I agree with you. My point was that today, if an election was called tomorrow based on the information that she had right now, she does not have any of the documents that prove her residency and—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —and I think it's a lot to ask. I don't know. Why my daughter would go and get that document is because her mother would be after her to go and get it. I think there are a lot of young people who just...it would be too complicated. There are a lot of people—now we're in a certain

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Auditor General has the powers of a commissioner, under the Inquiries Act, which in fact means that the Auditor General can compel testimony. He doesn't have to go to a court to order it. The Auditor General can order it himself. I don't know that it has ever actually been

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure about that. I have a feeling that often reporting publicly that someone did not talk to us was perhaps more damaging than actually talking to us.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In the administrative policies of government, if we go back, previously the officers of Parliament were included with all the other departments and agencies. The administrative policies all applied to us with no recognition of the independence that was needed for officers of Parl

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Chair, I can really base this only on my experience. When I was Auditor General, we had amendments to the Auditor General Act three or four times. Certainly, each time we were consulted. Our views were sought. We were asked if there were any unintended consequences that could res

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't know all the specifics of the act. I've certainly not seen anything in the Elections Act that would allow the Chief Electoral Officer to stop an investigation. I can only rely on the testimony of the commissioner who indicated very clearly that he had the necessary operat

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said in my opening remarks, the officers of Parliament really do play a very important role in our democracy. We don't take these jobs to win popularity contests. We do our work with objectivity. I know that there are certain audits that created—I don't quite know how to phr

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the major difficulty that has been raised with respect to putting the commissioner under the Director of Public Prosecutions is on the exchange of information. It is very important that the commissioner work with Elections Canada in order to get all of the information tha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is my understanding, yes, that there could be difficulties for the commissioner in obtaining that information from Elections Canada. There are a whole series of legislative requirements within the government about exchanging information between departments. That is certainly s

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here and would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before this committee with regards to its study of Bill C-23. I would like to emphasize that my comments are mine alone. I do not represent the Chief Electoral Officer, Elect