Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I believe this is the appropriate section to deal with this. I have some notes from Nancy Karetak-Lindell talking about some of the special issues that happen in the far north. Clearly, weather is a huge issue. Nancy puts in her notes that she had electors who were stuck because of weather in Iqaluit until January 23, which was the day of the election, and they therefore missed the advance polls in other regions.
They're often asked to go to other communities, because they have no roads up there, which causes some people to incur a cost of $600 to fly to another community because that's where the polling station is. She mentions people in Clyde River who had to go to Pond Inlet to do the advance poll. Again, they had to pay for the flight.
I think it's unique to Nunavut. I don't know if there are similar cases in other northern ridings, but I know for Nancy it has been an ongoing concern. She said that through the past four elections, after every election she has made presentations to Elections Canada and nothing has changed. So I would hope that if we're able to, we can maybe seize on this opportunity.
She also cites voters who have to go out of the community for health care, and very often, if they only speak their native tongue, they will have to have another family member go with them. It happened that one couple was unable to vote because they had to fly to Toronto for some medical attention. I think that's just a reality of living in the far north.
The other huge issue for her is that while everyone recognizes that we have two official languages, there are many people in her communities who speak their native tongue, and not having interpretation and not having ballots and other information in that language is a huge handicap for them, and actually can, in some cases, disenfranchise them.
She's also asking if there could not be more flexibility in having people in the community designated to vouch for these people, rather than asking them to fly to other communities such as Iqaluit where the deputy returning officer is; that they be able to have people deputized to identify them, to take the identification, and to explain that there may be situations beyond their control, such as weather, where they had every good intention of meeting the deadlines or going indeed to where Elections Canada would have them go but they're unable to.
She also states--and this isn't the right section, but if people will indulge me, I'll just put it on the record--that as a candidate, she has a real problem with getting her documentation signed. We've already covered off the fact that there are fewer signatures needed in places such as Nunavut. It's very difficult. She has to fax the papers and physically ship them counter to counter by air, which again can sometimes put a candidate in jeopardy or delay when they're actually the official candidate.
So I'd like to have a discussion as to how we can perhaps, under this section, make some accommodations. I see nodding heads, so there must be other communities that are remote that are dealing with some of these issues as well.