Evidence of meeting #19 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was date.
A recording is available from Parliament.
September 28th, 2006 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Thank you, Chair.
Good morning, Ms. Johnson. My name is Marcel Proulx. I'm the Liberal member for Hull—Aylmer in the province of Quebec.
I came in late this morning and I didn't hear if you mentioned what day of the week your elections were held.
11:45 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Our elections are on a Tuesday.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay.
Can you tell us what types of results.... I know you're talking about provincial elections, but in the municipal elections I'd be very interested to know what the participation was, seeing those were on a Saturday.
In the province of Quebec, we have our provincial elections on Sundays, which makes it so much easier for the chief electoral officer to get schools, gymnasiums, and so on, when organizing the election. It would be the same thing, I presume, on Saturdays in British Columbia for the municipal elections.
Do you have figures to compare the participation in municipal elections with the provincial elections, which would be on a Saturday versus a Tuesday?
11:45 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Municipal participation varies considerably around the province. However, it is consistently much lower than in provincial elections, before and after fixed dates were introduced for provincial general elections. Our participation most definitely exceeds that of municipal elections.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Thank you.
What about your advance polls? When are they? I should say, what days of the week are they?
11:45 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Our advance polls are on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the week preceding general voting day. In terms of participation, we start out with pretty strong participation on the Wednesday, but the Saturday is always the busiest day.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Of course. Is it also a problem for you to find proper offices or voting stations because it's on a Tuesday?
11:45 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Is it difficult for you to find appropriate locations, offices, or halls for the vote because it's on a Tuesday?
11:45 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Not particularly, no. Knowing well in advance when we will require them is certainly of great assistance.
We do not generally have difficulty in getting school gymnasiums for Tuesdays because the schools know well in advance that it's coming. We also promote it as a learning opportunity for the students in the school, which I think helps.
But we have always had provincial elections on a weekday and that's what we're familiar with.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay. Could you talk about your list of voters? Do you have a permanent list, or do you have an enumeration every time you have an election?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I presume the fact that you have a fixed date has helped you to have an updated list that is in much better condition than if you had to wait until an election was declared to update your list. Am I right?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Our permanent list is updated on a continuous basis. We share voter data with Elections Canada. We also receive updates through the driver's licence program in B.C. Our list is kept quite current and complete on an ongoing basis.
But the fixed-date election allowed us to do some targeted registration of under-represented voters, such as shut-ins, in areas of high growth to really maximize the currency and quality of the list going into the election.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I don't find it particularly encouraging when you say that you regularly update with the Elections Canada list, because we don't find it's that perfect.
How perfect do you find your list to be once it's updated? Are there a lot of mistakes or a lot of problems with your list being a permanent list, or are you very comfortable that your list is in very good condition?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
We have had a permanent list in British Columbia for...Technical difficulty—Editor. It's been our standard. We...Technical difficulty—Editor...the last election with about...Technical difficulty—Editor...eligible voters registered.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Excuse me. Somebody forgot to pay the phone bill at this end. We're missing some of your comments. Could you start your answer again, please?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Certainly.
British Columbia has had a permanent voters list for decades. We were the first in Canada with a continuous list. When we went into the 2005 general election, we had about 90% of eligible voters registered. We had a currency rate--that is, people registered at the correct residential address--of just over 80%.
The list somewhat degrades between elections, because voters are not motivated to let us know when they move, but overall I think the list in British Columbia is of good quality.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
On that note, we'll end this round.
Thank you very much, Mr. Proulx.
Mr. Reid, please.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for taking the time to appear with our committee this morning.
I want to ask you a question about an item of discretion for the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada that is written into the draft legislation as it stands, and then to tell you what our Chief Electoral Officer has commented on it, and to get your feedback on his commentary.
As it now stands, the legislation, and I'm going to read a little of it, says:
If the Chief Electoral Officer is of the opinion that a Monday that would otherwise be polling day
--for the election--
is not suitable for that purpose, including by reason of its being in conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance or a provincial or municipal election, the Chief Electoral Officer may choose another day in accordance with subsection (4)
And then proposed subsection 56.2.(4) says:
The alternate day must be either the Tuesday immediately following the Monday that would otherwise be polling day or be the Monday of the following week.
In essence, the Chief Electoral Officer gets to decide, under this legislation, whether the third Monday in October is the approved day, and if it seems that there's a good reason not to, then it can be shifted by either one day or by seven days.
The Chief Electoral Officer commented on this to our committee earlier this week—and I'm quoting here from his presentation—by saying:
...if the date of the electionon has to shift beyond a Tuesday, it would be preferable to have it moved to the next day, rather than the following Monday as currently proposed.
In other words, it would be a shift of either one day, 24 hours, or of 48 hours, rather than of 24 hours or a whole week.
When I asked him what the reason was, because he hadn't provided a rationale in his written presentation, he said it had to do with the difficulty of keeping staff available, that kind of thing.
I want to get your comment on what would be preferable if you found yourself in the position of having the responsibility of making this kind of adjustment.