Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Sept. 28th, 2006

[Linda Johnson]

I'm certainly inclined to agree with Mr. Kingsley that...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...means that the staff are planning their...[Technical difficulty--Editor]. And it is difficult to find enough...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...so a week's delay may prove problematic. And I think--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Johnson, but we are having those “lack of payment of the audio bills in Ottawa” problems again. I'm wondering if you could simply repeat your answer to that question in full. Thank you.

[Linda Johnson]

I agree with Mr. Kingsley. It is very difficult to get temporary staff in an election. With a fixed date, those staff will have planned their other commitments around that date. And if it is moved, one or two days would be preferable to a full week.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I should mention that under this legislation the Chief Electoral Officer has to provide this information about the shift no later than August 1—I think I'm right. So it would be a good two and a half months in advance. I don't know if that's of relevance in the whole equation.

[Linda Johnson]

It would be relevant for the junior election officials, but for the returning officers, they're already making their plans.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

We will move now to Madame Picard, s'il vous plaît.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Good day, Ms. Johnson. My name is Pauline Picard and I am from Quebec.

For registered political parties, does a fixed-date election mean there is a year of election campaigning during which future candidates are allowed to advertise, at their own expense, in newspapers to promote their candidacy in the election? Is that true?

[Linda Johnson]

Outside of a campaign period, which is defined in the act as beginning on writ day, yes, the candidates would be free to do so. However, the voters really aren't paying attention until much closer to the election. So I would question the wisdom of that spending.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

A candidate can therefore spend fairly significant sums on advertising to promote his/her candidacy. There is no rule of law to forbid it.

[Linda Johnson]

It is true. They would have to report the spending, but the spending would not be subject to their expenses limit under the Election Act.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That's it.

We will proceed now to Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Johnson, I just had a question about your district returning officers and generally speaking the staff who are under your purview. How does that work? Is that done by way of the government making recommendations for DROs, or candidates for that matter? Or is it done through your office specifically without hindrance from the likes of people like us?

[Linda Johnson]

The equivalent of returning officers in British Columbia, we call them district electoral officers, are appointed by the Chief Electoral Officer. We do not accept nominations, if you will, from anyone. We do a recruitment on our own. Those officials for...[Technical difficulty--Editor...]for recruiting the election officials who work...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...they recruit on their own. There is no provision for political parties to recommend officials.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

We hopefully will be moving to that. We have a bill presently in the Senate that will affect the federal system in the same manner that you have there. I'm wondering, was a benefit of having a fixed election date that you had more time to recruit and train people? Was that helpful to you?

[Linda Johnson]

It was definitely helpful. It allowed us to apply the principle of merit rather than just scrambling and hiring whoever appeared. It allowed us to plan our training...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...and in turn they have their election officials in a more thoughtful way. I think it resulted in...[Technical difficulty--Editor].

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Excuse me, Ms. Johnson, if you can still hear me, we just lost the last 45 seconds of that. I'm terribly sorry for this inconvenience. Mr. Dewar, I apologize to you too. Somehow it seems the technology seems to be picking on you today. I'm sure there's nothing at all behind that. But I would ask you, Ms. Johnson, to repeat your last answer, and I will extend you, Mr. Dewar, sufficient additional time.

[Linda Johnson]

No problem.

I definitely feel that fixed election dates resulted in better quality staff and better quality training. It allowed us to apply the merit principle in our recruitment. It allowed us to be more thoughtful in the...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...and to focus on getting the best quality staff in every position. I think the fixed date was what allowed us to achieve that effectiveness.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Lastly, you said your fixed election date is in May, and I have a question about why it's May. Why is it that May was chosen as the month?

[Linda Johnson]

I don't really know. The spring election has been common in British Columbia. I don't know why government chose May over another month. From a weather perspective, May works well in every part of the province. We're past spring breakup and we don't have snow anywhere. That is not always true in October.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you, Mr. Dewar.

We will begin round three of questioning. Again we'll stick with the five-minute time limit. I think that's working very well.

Ms. Redman is next, please.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

Hello, Ms. Johnson. It's good of you to join us, even with these intermittent interruptions.

There are two areas I'd like to cover. First, when you're speaking to the merit principle of the people who get hired, I know that in my riding two returning officers have actually gone to other countries to train people. I understand where your comment's coming from, but I wouldn't want any innuendo to say that we currently have substandard staff, because I know they worked very well in my riding. One was the appointment of a previous member. They have indeed gone to show how elections should be run in other countries, so despite the fact that it may be a somewhat more partisan appointment system, there are people with great merit who are fulfilling those roles federally now.

[Linda Johnson]

No question, and some of the federal officials have also worked provincially.

I'm referring to the recruitment of office staff and front-line election officials, a process wherein we've had an opportunity to take the time to match skills and abilities with the roles they'll be filling, which isn't always possible without a fixed date.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Is there any kind of assessment or debriefing done after the election? As much as we've all made hires that we thought were good skill matches, is there some kind of assessment done as to how successful that hire has been?