Good morning, honourable chair, committee members, and guests.
I am the chair of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa, a coalition of seventy-plus organizations and individuals working together since 1995 to develop strategies to end homelessness. I am also the executive director of Anglican Social Services – Centre 454, a day program and counselling centre that has served the homeless population and those at risk of homelessness since 1954.
The Canadian government, through Elections Canada, has been working very hard to include all electors in the election process. We have worked with Elections Canada to address the extremely low voting rate amongst homeless and/or marginalized Canadians. We are concerned that proposed changes exclude homeless and temporarily housed citizens.
Currently, the emergency shelters in Ottawa have staff who have been able to vouch for the identity of shelter residents they know. At Centre 454, where we serve over 300 different people a day, we have held enumeration blitzes, meetings to introduce the candidates to our participants, and, in the most recent federal election, an advance poll in our centre for the homeless community. The other day programs in Ottawa have also done similar activities. In fact, Elections Canada has already contacted my staff to prepare for the next election. Elections at the federal level have become more inclusive of homeless people in the nine years since I have been involved.
In Ottawa, 1% of its population, or 8,853 people, were homeless and used shelters in 2005. Our research shows that 82% of these people are of voting age. These include parents, single women and men, and increasing numbers of people from the first nation, Inuit, and Métis communities. The 1% does not include the many people not living in shelters. It does not include the many who couch surf, moving from the homes of family, friends, or strangers. And it does not include those living in places not fit for human habitation, such as parks and cars.
Bill C-31 will unintentionally reverse much of the groundwork of Elections Canada and its many partners like the Alliance to End Homelessness and Centre 454. We have two points to make.
Proposed section 143 refers to the declaration of identity and the identification required to vote. People who are homeless do not have identification that reflects their stay in a shelter. For those who are homeless and living in a shelter, the average length of stay in Ottawa is between 23 and 45 days. It is essential that shelter staff, no matter where they personally live, are able to continue to vouch for more than one person when the individual shelter residents are well known to them.
Those people who are couch-surfing or temporarily housed often do not have identification that reflects their current address. What happens if an election is called and a person finds themselves in between permanent addresses? This person would not have any ID for their current address and they usually would not have had time to make friends with any neighbours who could vouch for them.
The Alliance to End Homelessness has used its communication mechanisms to raise awareness of the right of Canadians to vote, and the process they must go through to make their vote count by connecting Elections Canada with its members. I have given to the clerk a copy of the report card on homelessness that we produced last winter, and they will be made available to you. They're in both official languages, and they're also available on our website.
Centre 454 has worked with Elections Canada to enumerate people and we have provided a long-time employee on election day in the polling station, to encourage people in our community who may never have voted before and for whom it is an intimidating process. It is essential that my staff and others serving the homeless community, no matter where they personally live, are able to continue to vouch for more than one person when the individual agency clients are well known to them. I believe the government needs to think of the challenges faced by all citizens, including the homeless population, when reviewing Bill C-31. Clause 21 must be amended to ensure that the homeless or temporarily housed are not disenfranchised in this process of amending the Canada Elections Act.
The second point is that clause 9 of Bill C-31 proposes to remove subsection 55(3) from the current Canada Elections Act. This clause very clearly states that a body may use the information only for the purposes of establishing lists of electors for an election or a referendum.
Many in the homeless population are new Canadians who may have come from war-torn homelands. Many others who are homeless have been abused in the past by systems and institutions that professed a mandate to help them. Trust in the state to use personal information justly, legally, and wisely may not be as strong for this group as it is for those of us with more resources at hand to protect our information. At the same time, many Canadians have expressed their grave concerns about the improper use of their personal information. We therefore ask that subsection 55(3) of the current Canada Elections Act remain.
Thank you. I look forward to questions.