Evidence of meeting #33 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 homeless.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
Well, we've been doing it in partnership with Elections Canada.
12:05 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
Elections Canada and the centre have been working together over the last nine years to try to engage more people in the homeless community in the election process. The voting rate is very low in that population, and we want to increase it.
Some people have ID and some people don't. Having an enumeration would be extremely helpful.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I'm sorry, your time is up.
We will move to the second round.
It's perhaps unusual, but I'm going to take the opportunity to say this. Mr. Dewar has used the public forum to mention the speed with which this committee is doing its work. I would like to remind the member that we're here to gather information. The committee spent a lot of time studying this bill and interviewing witnesses.
Frankly, Mr. Dewar, I think the committee has been incredibly generous and accommodating to your party. The committee will recall that I asked for a list of witnesses two or three weeks ago. With every day that goes by, however, we get another request from your party for witnesses.
I don't think it's a good forum for members of your party to chastise this committee's good work. The government had 120 days to respond to this committee's report. They just met the deadline. That's not speed; that's efficiency.
I would like to ask the witnesses this, if I can. At this point in time, there is another bill on fixed-date elections before the Senate, which will potentially give all voters in Canada a notice of four years. I will allow some time for all the witnesses to respond. Do the witnesses or the members see a benefit to having that kind of forewarning?
I appreciate that in dealing with the homeless we have stays that are 15 to 45 days, and it is certainly a significant problem. But in terms of assisting folks to get the proper identifiers, with a notice of four years or two years versus what's been happening, do the witnesses have any comments on how it will assist for some of the concerns you have?
Mr. Hepburn, could I start with you?
12:05 p.m.
National Communications Officer, Canadian Federation of Students
Yes, certainly. I think it's Bill S-4 you are referring to.
12:05 p.m.
National Communications Officer, Canadian Federation of Students
It'sBill C-16. Okay.
Fixed election dates might help in terms of giving people a heads-up that there is an election coming. But in the minority situation we're in now, of course, it would not do much good, because I imagine the bill addresses the fact that the government has to retain the confidence of the House. It helps in terms of giving people forewarning.
But at the same time, in terms of getting youth, the homeless, and other groups that don't traditionally vote in high numbers out to vote, any impediment is a great barrier. The requirement for a piece of photo ID, with a current address on it, whether or not there's a notice of two years or six months, is still an impediment. When the goal is to engage these people and get them out to vote, I think it carries quite a significant weight.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
I would echo what Mr. Hepburn said in terms of it not being overly helpful in that regard.
12:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Debra Dynes Family House, and Chair of the Coalition of Community Houses Ottawa, As an Individual
I would actually agree. I don't think it's particularly helpful.
People who live in poverty or are the working poor have a great deal of pressure in their lives. They often move or have to change jobs to maintain living wages, where they can. Youth have to move to wherever they can get an education. I'm not sure it is particularly helpful.
In our experiences in community health, we found it most helpful to assist people through free tax clinics, but I would echo what Mary-Martha said. Unless the information is secure, people will not willingly participate. But we've had a very high success rate so far in completing income tax forms for people for free and then encouraging them to use that option at the time of voting.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
As an Individual
The only comment I would make is on fixed elections. Our elderly don't really understand the system all that well to begin with. When you're dealing with a situation of having a set date and the situation that we have now, where elections may be called any time, I think it causes confusion for folks, especially our elders, who like to think things are set in a certain way.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
On a point of order, please, I'd like to apologize if the committee, and certainly you personally, were interpreting my comments to mean the bill and the committee. I did not mean the work the committee had done or the clerks who had worked on the committee in terms of the bill in front of us, but rather the response to the committee's report, and then it being put into bill form. That is what I was talking about. It was not about the bill in front of us or the work done on the bill, and the fact that the staff and yourself have been most accommodating. I was talking simply about the bill being put in front of us, that's all. So it wasn't about the committee or the work it's doing, just to clarify.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I appreciate that; thank you very much. Apology accepted, Mr. Dewar.
Colleagues, we're going to move into round--
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Jay Hill Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
On that same point of order, I don't want to belabour the point, but it did come up at a previous meeting, this whole business about whether it was the committee's sense that we should have a bill and move as expeditiously as possible. Certainly this was the agreement we had, including an agreement from the NDP at that time, that all of us recognized there were problems with our present system, and given the present situation of a minority Parliament, we wanted to move quite quickly. So the government was responding to that. We said, and all of us agreed at the time, that while we want to move quickly, and try to ensure that changes do happen before the next federal election, we certainly want to ensure also that we do the work as accurately as possible.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you.
Mr. Dewar has explained himself, and I accept that explanation, so we can move on.
Next round, I think we'll stay with five minutes this time, colleagues. A little bit shorter round this time.
Mr. Szabo, please.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to the witnesses.
I wanted to ask about the situation of eligible voters who may not have the capacity to understand or the competency to understand, and the risk there would be that they would be subject to some coercion to do something they might not understand. Do you share that concern? Is it something that you feel is prevalent and that should be addressed in terms of not trying too hard to put people in a situation where you might be doing more harm than good?
12:10 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
Who are you asking? Anyone?
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
I'm speaking of, for example, a homeless person who does not understand. Many homeless people suffer from mental illness, so they don't understand. Many people in seniors homes do not understand. Many people who are in any kind of a shelter may be under some duress, and it almost sounded to me like there was some suggestion that we have to educate and get involved, almost like an extension of Election Canada's responsibility, as opposed to facilitating the physical activity of casting a vote. Do you see that there is a line you should not cross?
12:10 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
Definitely, there is a line across which you shouldn't go, and coercion of any vote at any level of government is totally inappropriate. Our role at the centre is to educate people about the process of voting and also to present before them the candidate so they have an opportunity to engage with candidates about what their positions are, and then make their own decision.
Election Canada's responsibility, to my understanding, is to provide a process for which people can then cast a ballot and be responsible for that part of the process. It's that interface between the education piece and bringing people up to speed. Some people may not have the capacity to vote and they won't vote. Some people may have limited capacity, but still have the capacity to understand different opinions, and can make a choice.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
If I may, I'm a little curious and maybe a little concerned that somehow there is this feeling that you have, or someone may have, a responsibility to educate anybody about candidates, because the presumption is that the person doing the educating is not biased themselves. All of a sudden there is a risk here of getting involved in the political process, as opposed to facilitating the casting of a vote.
12:15 p.m.
Chair, Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and Executive Director of the Anglican Social Services - Centre 454, As an Individual
When I say we educate about the candidates, I mean we bring the candidates into the centre and provide opportunities for the whole range of candidates in the riding to present their positions to the community.