Evidence of meeting #20 for Electoral Reform in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was constituency.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Head of Electoral Commission, Scotland, The Electoral Commission
There's nothing formally in law requiring it. It's left to the parties, and they use various stratagems to try to achieve it. They're all committed to achieving greater diversity and ethnicity, but it really comes down to the parties to say how they do that.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
With the overall results, there must be an analysis of that diversity? Does your parliament reflect the Scottish population?
12:15 p.m.
Convener, The Electoral Management Board for Scotland
In terms of gender, not yet.
As Andy stated, all the parties have said that they're committed to trying to get closer to that. Their own processes for selecting candidates are designed to help that happen.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Thank you.
I'll go back to what we were talking about previously.
On the communications piece, there are two brief pieces. One of the figures you mentioned was £1.5 million, I think for a television campaign.
Do you actually have a line budget for your elections that says x percent of money goes to education and communication? Would it be 1%, 5%, or 20%?
That's my first question, and that might be all I have time for.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
I think we'd be good for an answer on that one, yes.
Go ahead, please.
12:15 p.m.
Head of Electoral Commission, Scotland, The Electoral Commission
Funding for public awareness campaigns at the U.K. level is a specific line in our budget, which the Speaker's committee, which we report to in the House of Commons, has to agree to. Funding for public awareness for the Scottish Parliament or local government elections is agreed with the Scottish government, and we submit a budget. That's how we do it. I can send you more figures on that if you need them.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Yes, if it's not too much trouble, if you could you forward those to our clerk, it would be greatly appreciated.
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your testimony today, which was very rich in detail. I thank you also for the attention that you have given to us in helping us solve our challenge. I know that you did some work trying to figure out a little bit what might work here in Canada, and we appreciate the time that you've put into that.
Our report should be out by December 1, if you're interested in seeing how your testimony is reflected at that level. Again, we thank you for your time today.
Colleagues, I would—
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Thank you, Ms. May.
For members of the committee, we meet again at 2 p.m. in Centre Block, room 237-C. Thank you very much.
Sorry, Mr. Reid.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
I thought we were having a meeting now to discuss the....
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
No, actually, this afternoon it's from 2:00 to 5:15, of which a segment at the end is for in camera discussion.
Thank you so much.
