Bill C-76 (Historical)

Elections Modernization Act

An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and other Acts and to make certain consequential amendments

This enactment amends the Canada Elections Act to establish spending limits for third parties and political parties during a defined period before the election period of a general election held on a day fixed under that Act. It also establishes measures to increase transparency regarding the participation of third parties in the electoral process. Among other things that it does in this regard, the enactment
(a) adds reporting requirements for third parties engaging in partisan activities, partisan advertising, and election surveys to the reporting requirements for third parties engaging in election advertising;
(b) creates an obligation for third parties to open a separate bank account for expenses related to the matters referred to in paragraph (a); and
(c) creates an obligation for political parties and third parties to identify themselves in partisan advertising during the defined period before the election period.
The enactment also amends the Act to implement measures to reduce barriers to participation and increase accessibility. Among other things that it does in this regard, the enactment
(a) establishes a Register of Future Electors in which Canadian citizens 14 to 17 years of age may consent to be included;
(b) broadens the application of accommodation measures to all persons with a disability, irrespective of its nature;
(c) creates a financial incentive for registered parties and candidates to take steps to accommodate persons with a disability during an election period;
(d) amends some of the rules regarding the treatment of candidates’ expenses, including the rules related to childcare expenses, expenses related to the care of a person with a disability and litigation expenses;
(e) amends the rules regarding the treatment of nomination contestants’ and leadership contestants’ litigation expenses and personal expenses;
(f) allows Canadian Forces electors access to several methods of voting, while also adopting measures to ensure the integrity of the vote;
(g) removes limitations on public education and information activities conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer;
(h) removes two limitations on voting by non-resident electors: the requirement that they have been residing outside Canada for less than five consecutive years and the requirement that they intend to return to Canada to resume residence in the future; and
(i) extends voting hours on advance polling days.
The enactment also amends the Act to modernize voting services, facilitate enforcement and improve various aspects of the administration of elections and of political financing. Among other things that it does in this regard, the enactment
(a) removes the assignment of specific responsibilities set out in the Act to specific election officers by creating a generic category of election officer to whom all those responsibilities may be assigned;
(b) limits election periods to a maximum of 50 days;
(c) removes administrative barriers in order to facilitate the hiring of election officers;
(d) authorizes the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to provide the Chief Electoral Officer with information about permanent residents and foreign nationals for the purpose of updating the Register of Electors;
(e) removes the prohibition on the Chief Electoral Officer authorizing the notice of confirmation of registration (commonly known as a “voter information card”) as identification;
(f) replaces, in the context of voter identification, the option of attestation for residence with an option of vouching for identity and residence;
(g) removes the requirement for electors’ signatures during advance polls, changes procedures for the closing of advance polls and allows for counting ballots from advance polls one hour before the regular polls close;
(h) replaces the right or obligation to take an oath with a right or obligation to make a solemn declaration, and streamlines the various declarations that electors may have the right or obligation to make under specific circumstances;
(i) relocates the Commissioner of Canada Elections to within the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, and provides that the Commissioner is to be appointed by the Chief Electoral Officer, after consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions, for a non-renewable term of 10 years;
(j) provides the Commissioner of Canada Elections with the authority to impose administrative monetary penalties for contraventions of provisions of Parts 16, 17 and 18 of the Act and certain other provisions of the Act;
(k) provides the Commissioner of Canada Elections with the authority to lay charges;
(l) provides the Commissioner of Canada Elections with the power to apply for a court order requiring testimony or a written return;
(m) clarifies offences relating to
(i) the publishing of false statements,
(ii) participation by non-Canadians in elections, including inducing electors to vote or refrain from voting, and
(iii) impersonation; and
(n) implements a number of measures to harmonize and streamline political financing monitoring and reporting.
The enactment also amends the Act to provide for certain requirements with regard to the protection of personal information for registered parties, eligible parties and political parties that are applying to become registered parties, including the obligation for the party to adopt a policy for the protection of personal information and to publish it on its Internet site.
The enactment also amends the Parliament of Canada Act to prevent the calling of a by-election when a vacancy in the House of Commons occurs within nine months before the day fixed for a general election under the Canada Elections Act.
It also amends the Public Service Employment Act to clarify that the maximum period of employment of casual workers in the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer — 165 working days in one calendar year — applies to those who are appointed by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
Finally, the enactment contains transitional provisions, makes consequential amendments to other Acts and repeals the Special Voting Rules.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I think there will be. I think Canadians will be excited about it. We are very excited about getting Canadians on the future electors list. It's about encouraging more young people to participate, so I am hopeful that it will be one additional step in seeing a higher youth voter turnout.

Additionally, Bill C-76 also returns the mandate of the CEO of Elections Canada to be able to inform and educate the public about voting. Should Bill C-76 pass, I am sure that we will see much more engagement by the CEO of Elections Canada for voters at all age levels and for everyone who is intending to participate in our elections, which I think will be very positive.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I think I would need to take a further look at it. However, one thing that should be noted is that during the pre-writ period, measures in Bill C-76 are only with regard to partisan-related activity. In the current Canada Elections Act, as has been the case for a long time, in the writ period it's any advertising, so there is no distinction between partisan and issue advertising. I think that distinction, in fact, is important to maintain, because as the Supreme Court has illustrated in times past, particularly in Harper v. Canada, the supremacy of the voice needs to be with political parties and political actors during the writ period. I think that is an important distinction to maintain.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

In Bill C-76 they have to account for where the money comes from and they also have to attest that there is no foreign funding in that bank account. If they do not do that, then they would be breaking the law if Bill C-76 passes. I think that is substantial.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Again, Bill C-76 does require third parties that intend to spend or that have spent up to $500 on advertising to open a bank account and to disclose any money that's going into it and where all the money came from. I think this is a reasonable provision to ensure the integrity of where and how they are using their money.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, my apologies: I didn't complete my comment thanking you for being here today, so thank you for being here today.

Minister, normally during an election there are severe limits on activities that the government can undertake at the same time that there are stringent limits on election activities. Bill C-76 extends the time period during which political parties and third parties are subject to strict rules, so it stands to reason that there will be some reasonable limits on government activity during the same period. You've already announced a ban on most government advertising in the 90 days prior to the fixed election date; can you commit to extending this ban to include the entire pre-writ period?

[Jean-François Morin, Senior Policy Advisor, Privy Council Office]

Thank you very much for your question.

Yes, there is an amendment that has been proposed to partially implement the Chief Electoral Officer's recommendation. This amendment would actually make it also an offence to attempt to do anything that is currently in Bill C-76, but always with the intent to affect the election. This new provision in Bill C-76 mirrors an existing provision of the Criminal Code, so in Bill C-76 the provision about malicious use of a computer includes two intent requirements: one specific intent requirement related to the election, and one more general intent requirement that is only related to fraud.

In parallel to that, the Criminal Code provision will continue to apply, and of course the Criminal Code provision doesn't have that specificity about federal elections.

Therefore, yes, definitely the commissioner of Canada elections will be able to investigate this offence in the Canada Elections Act, but if he finds that all essential elements of the offence are met except for the one related to the electoral context, he can also turn to another investigative body and ask that charges be laid under the Criminal Code.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Okay.

During the CEO's testimony at committee, the commissioner of Canada elections said that there are challenges of enforcement in the provisions of Bill C-76 to prohibit organizations or individuals from selling ad space to any foreign entity. Ensuring enforceability is obviously key to keeping foreign actors outside of Canadian elections. Do you agree, and if so, do you feel the bill should be amended to include this aspect?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Minister and your team, for being here.

I'm looking through the amendments that your government has moved to this bill and I'm considering the track that has taken us here. It has been 700 days since you introduced Bill C-33, which was the original effort to get rid of the unfair elections act. It's five months past the deadline that was set by Elections Canada to bring these changes to completion and into law. It more than two years after the broken promise to make 2015 the last election under the first-past-the-post system.

I'm surprised, because I thought there would be more in here on things that your government, and you personally, have claimed to support, and because you seem unsupportive of things that I think would help.

I think of the launch of the parliamentary session. The Prime Minister said to your caucus, “Add women. Change politics is how we will make a better country.”

One of the Liberal fundraising ads said, ”Canada needs more women from diverse backgrounds making decisions in Ottawa. Because when women succeed, we all succeed.”

We have an amendment in here that is based upon a model that Ireland and other countries have used. In the case of Ireland, it increased the participation of women candidates by 90% and helped elect 40% more women to their parliament.

We're ranked 61st in the world right now, Minister. You know this, of course. The Parliament is 26% women, and at the current pace, as the Daughters of the Vote pointed out to the Prime Minister, it will take 90 years to get to equity in our legislature, yet you're planning to vote against an amendment to get us there, an amendment as has been applied in other democracies.

Did you get the IT alert that I received just recently from our IT service department here in Ottawa? It just happened a couple of hours ago. It was an IT alert for a Facebook data breach. You commissioned a report, which was delivered to you by the CSE, and I'm quoting from that report. It said:

...almost certainly, political parties and politicians, and the media are more vulnerable to cyber threats and related influence operations....

The Privacy Commissioner has said that one of the ways to counter those threats to our democracy is to include political parties under privacy rules. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association just wrote to you and said that the provisions on privacy are so inadequate as to be meaningless, and the current Privacy Commissioner has said that Bill C-76—this bill—has “nothing of substance” when it comes to privacy.

British Columbia has existed under these privacy rules for 15 years. Parties have been able to communicate effectively with voters. Europe has had it for 20 years, and they've been effectively able to communicate with their voters.

We're proposing Sunday voting, which the former Chief Electoral Officer has promoted. In other democracies, it has increased voter participation by 6% to 7%.

I guess what I find confusing about all of this is that I'm trying to match the words and the rhetoric of your government with your actions when we now have an opportunity to do something about it. You've been in office for three years. Here's an opportunity to deal with the rules that guide us as politicians, that guide the electoral process. I would think that one of your fundamental mandates would be to increase the participation of women and diverse voices, yet your party has chosen to protect all incumbents, thereby ensuring the status quo. The status quo should be unacceptable to everybody.

When we have amendments that would help more women become candidates, help more women and diverse voices actually get elected, you want to vote against them. We see the cyber-threats and the cybersecurity issues that your own agency identified after your request to investigate, but this bill has nothing in it to increase protection of data and privacy.

When the current Chief Electoral Officer was here testifying, we asked him what he knew about what the parties gather in terms of the data on Canadians, and he said, “I have no idea.” Your report says that we, as political parties, are vulnerable to attacks and that Canada as a country is susceptible to these attacks. Having watched Brexit, having watched the U.S. elections, we have important and very recent examples of the reasons to strengthen privacy laws, but this bill has nothing in it.

Seven hundred days after introducing the first iteration of this bill, five months after passing over the deadline set by Elections Canada to get us to this place so we can introduce these changes, and after having made so many promises to women and diverse groups to do better, we're offering opportunities to do better through amendments, based on evidence that is in front of us.

Your government claims to be evidence-based. We are using evidence to improve the things that your government and your party claim to want to improve, and you're choosing not to do them. My question is, why?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

His comments were based on the Communications Security Establishment report that was released in June 2017, which was the first time that a signals intelligence agency, or any intelligence agency around the world, had publicly examined and released information on foreign interference in elections around the world. While low levels were seen, they were not seen to have interfered in the election itself; however, Bill C-76, and other actions that are being taken in collaboration with the political parties and the CSE are all done to prevent and prepare Canadians for what could be an eventuality in 2019, or it could not.

As I've said, I think this is a very robust framework and I think it prepares and sets up Canadians well for 2019, and that we can have confidence in both our intelligence and security agencies, and also in our elections administration to do what they can to protect Canadian democracy.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

At the United Nations recently, your Prime Minister indicated that there was not much foreign influence or interference in the last election here in Canada.

In your opinion, how much is too much? Is “not much” too much? Do you feel that with Bill C-76 we will have no influence or interference entering the 2019 federal election?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I think we should determine the difference between “foreign influence” versus “foreign interference”. Foreign influences are things that could be overt—for example, a foreign government saying this is what they believe on a particular subject. That's within the rules of diplomacy.

Foreign interference would be the covert attempt to undermine Canadians' information or access to information, or understanding the results of the election. I believe that Bill C-76 does what's possible within the law to do our best to ensure that this does not happen; however, I think that what we've tried to do, and what I've tried to do with Bill C-76, is plan for the things that we know of and ensure that they're grounded in the values and the principles that are important for Canadians with regard to our elections.

However, there could always be something that happens in the future that we are unaware of, but I think that this is a very robust framework and grounding to do our best to protect Canadian elections from foreign interference.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Within Bill C-76, there's a blanket ban on using foreign funding for partisan activities during the pre-writ or political period. There are anti-circumvention rules within Bill C-76 as well, to ensure that this is not the case; however, it's important to recognize that we strongly believe that Bill C-76 goes quite far with regard to doing our best to ensure there is no foreign funding either at the third party or political party level in Canada.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

In Bill C-76, you attempt to tackle foreign interference in Canadian elections. Let's take a hypothetical case of a foreign entity donating $1 million to a Canadian organization for administration costs, let's say. Then this organization, which had raised money for these costs, suddenly finds itself with this $1 million available to campaign in Canada.

Can you confirm that this type of foreign funding and interference will remain legal, despite Bill C-76?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I think it's important to clarify what exactly a third party is. Third parties are anything that are not political parties or candidates. That could be an individual or civil society; that could be any group or individual in Canada.

We believe it's important that it should only meet that threshold when that individual or organization will be conducting political or partisan activities in the lead-up to the campaign. Otherwise, I think that would be going too far into either people's personal lives or the activity of organizations that may not actually be participating in political activities.

However, what Bill C-76 does is to require that if a third party is intending to participate either during the pre-writ period or the writ period, they must disclose all donations received in the lead-up to that election.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

In Bill C-76, we have actually proposed that third parties create a separate bank account for any activities with regard to funds that they intend to use for political activities in the pre-writ period and the writ period.