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.