Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On the whole, the Bloc québécois is in favour of the principles of Bill C-2, particularly since it addresses a certain number of our party's traditional demands, in particular regarding the appointment of returning officers. However, it lacks one aspect that would improve Bill C-2: that returning officers should be selected following public competitions.
In December 2004, the Bloc québécois tabled a bill to introduce this amendment. We would be pleased to see Canada imitate Quebec 25 years later by requiring returning officers to be appointed by public competition. We recommend that section 503 of Quebec's Election Act be adapted to Bill C-2. That section provides as follows:
The appointment of a returning officer shall be made after a public competition among the qualified electors domiciled in the electoral division concerned or in a contiguous electoral division, provided, in this latter case, that the person is able to carry out his duties in as satisfactory a manner as if he were domiciled in the electoral division for which he is appointed.
In a previous appearance, Mr. Kingsley stated that he wanted to proceed by public competition in the event of vacancies. We think Bill C-2 would be improved if the obligation to hold public competitions for all electoral districts in Canada were included.
Now I'm going to talk about the coming into force of the new clauses 45 to 55 of the bill, which mainly concern authorized contributions. Apart from partisan reasons, there is no reason for these clauses to enter into effect at the time of assent. Citizens have made contributions during the year, based on the act as it stands today. Some have made bank authorizations and have spread their contributions over the entire calendar year. Introducing new provisions would be unfair for those contributors.
As regards the issuing of tax receipts, Revenue Canada could require parties to prove that the contributions were made before Royal Assent. For example, if Royal Assent is given on October 1, bank authorizations following that date would no longer be valid, whereas those made before that date would be. Does the tax receipt apply to the elector's entire contribution for the calendar year or only part of the calendar year? We think that, if you exclude partisan reasons, in the tradition of the implementation of this type of measure, the calendar year is normally the reference year.
We strongly recommend that you ensure that the provisions concerning contributions enter into force on January 1 of the year following Royal Assent.