Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 20th, 2007

[Marc Mayrand]

I'm sorry I cannot give you a more specific answer to your question. I know that Bill C-31 provides for a random voter number. That is about all I know. I really have no idea about the context of this provision or the use that will be made of this number. This is something I will have to find out about as soon as I assume the position, in order to see how we will go about implementing all of this.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Based on your experience or the information you have received in recent weeks, have you seen any areas that require improvement, such as the processing of complaints received at Elections Canada?

[Marc Mayrand]

To be quite honest, I have learned about some of the debates that have taken place in this committee, including appearances by Mr. Kingsley and the electoral commissioner.

At one point, when I was reading the transcripts of your meeting, I noticed that there did seem to be some concern in this area.

I honestly cannot tell you where this concern originates nor how to go about correcting it. I did see that this was something that had attracted the committee's attention, and that had given rise to some discussion. So I will have to look into this as soon as possible if my nomination is confirmed.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Great. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much.

Go ahead, Monsieur Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As we know—and the new legislation will change that—in the past, returning officers and assistant returning officers were appointed on the basis of their political allegiance. Mr. Kingsley has already complained about the fact that, in election periods, he had tried to solve the problem with politically-appointed returning officers but did not have the authority to do so. They would almost send him elsewhere. The returning officers would tell him that it was not he, Mr. Kingsley, who had appointed them, and that they could do what they liked. That complaint was often voiced before our committee; people complained about that.

What could you do if there were to be an election in the next few months, and you were not able to apply the provisions C-2, and, for example, you were unable to make the appointments yourself? The idea is to eliminate any political interference, to judge on the basis of people's experience and not their political views, as in the past.

[Marc Mayrand]

I must admit, as I was saying earlier—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

You did not know what you were getting into, did you?

[Marc Mayrand]

I am not aware of progress made with respect to the appointment of returning officers. I know that C-2, the Federal Accountability Act, changes the rules of the game regarding the appointment of returning officers. At present, I have no idea of when exactly those provisions will come into force, and even less do I know the scope of preparations Elections Canada has made to put those provisions into place.

However—and I say this without prejudice—I imagine I will have to check where the authority lies and what powers the Chief Electoral Officer will have with respect to returning officers. I still believe that the Chief Electoral Officer will be the person to issue instructions, but that could indeed end up generating even more complaints.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

The basic principle is that Elections Canada cannot be tied to any political party in a democracy. The people decide which party will lead the Government of Canada. It is not up to the Government of Canada to appoint returning officers as it did in the past. Lastly, we hope that the legislation will not only go forward but be enforced very stringently.

With respect to appointments, one suggestion has been the public postings approach. Postings would be in universities and many other places, and returning officers would be selected on the basis of their qualifications.

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes, it would be a merit-based appointment process, according to the criteria—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

What do you think of that idea?

[Marc Mayrand]

What I understand from my reading of C-2 is that the legislation draws a great deal of inspiration from human resources reforms within the federal public service, which is based on defined merit criteria.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

As with judges, you mean? No, it's not the same with judges, is it?

[Marc Mayrand]

I will not commit myself to going there today.

As I was saying, there have been significant reforms in the Public Service human resources staffing process in recent years, and I believe the measures in Bill C-2 are heavily based on those reforms.

The Public Service staffing process is transparent and merit-based, relying on stringent assessment of the skills and qualifications of people who apply for positions.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Mayrand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Godin.

We will start a third round right now, colleagues. I'm going to remind you that we're going to move down to three-minute rounds, so keeping our questions short and the answers longer would be the best idea. There seem to be enough questions for a third round and possibly a fourth.

We'll start with Mr. Owen, please.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

Welcome, Mr. Mayrand. If I may say so, congratulations on your very successful career. To have been superintendent for the last 10 years under Liberal governments as well as...the confidence you've shown with the Conservative government, I think that speaks a lot for your accomplishments.

As you know, Elections Canada, under Mr. Kingsley in particular, has been very involved in international work, assisting in the creation of electoral commissions in newly democratizing countries, designing electoral processes, and overseeing the actual election process. I wonder if that's a responsibility you think is appropriate for an agency of this size to have.

Is it something you were involved with, in terms of capacity building, as Superintendent of Bankruptcy? Because that's, of course, an extremely important function within a democracy. Is it something, as I say, you've had any experience with, and is it something you're enthusiastic about continuing? Or do you feel that it is perhaps not the right role for our domestic agency?

[Marc Mayrand]

I think an international presence is an important element. It should not, certainly, come at the cost of other core activities of the organization, but I think it speaks well that Canada is seen as a model of democracy. I think it bodes well for Canada to be able to brand itself in other countries in assisting them to develop the democratic process for various countries in need.

I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of activities at the international level. As superintendent, I worked with the World Bank in a working group that was asked to design some critical factors for a successful and effective insolvency regime. In fact the World Bank was looking at emerging countries and wanted to facilitate the flow of capital to those countries, and they realized that one of the pieces of the puzzle was the need to have a solid legal infrastructure, and a piece of that legal infrastructure was to maintain an insolvency regime. So I had the opportunity to work with the World Bank, with the IMF, with UNCITRAL, which is a united commission dedicated to the harmonization of commercial law around the world.

We took various initiatives regarding cross-border insolvencies. We also helped countries design proper insolvency regimes so that, again, creditors, lenders, and investors could go confidently to various countries and place their capital there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Unfortunately, that's the end of that time for that question period.

Mr. Hill, please.

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

I'll just add my words of congratulations to those of Mr. Owen and others for your very successful career thus far. I'm anticipating that your success will continue.

My question is connected with the appointment of returning officers, and whether you can inform us whether you've given any thought to that process. As you're probably aware, it has been changed somewhat recently. Our understanding, from Mr. Kingsley's last appearance before this committee, is that his appointment process is under way, he's been interviewing people, or at least Elections Canada has.

Given the fact that it's unclear at this point in time how soon the opposition is going to drag the government into another election, I want to ask whether you're foreseeing any problems, if we are thrust into a sudden election this spring, with all of the 308 ridings being ready with a qualified and competent returning officer in place. Can you offer any of thoughts on that?

[Marc Mayrand]

I'm generally aware of the changes in the legislation that provide for the Chief Electoral Officer to appoint returning officers based on merit. I'm not aware of the progress that Elections Canada has made so far. That's one of the top issues that I will have to look into, to see the level of readiness to implement the new provisions of the legislation, to look at some of the timelines on appointing returning officers, and also to look at what are the merit criteria that have been designed so far to select those returning officers. It is something that I will be looking at very early on, should the appointment be confirmed.

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Okay. Just to wrap that up then, your thoughts, at least thus far, are that this would be a big priority for you if your appointment were ratified.

[Marc Mayrand]

I think it would be one of them, yes. The first priority for Elections Canada is to be ready for an election. Part of that involves having a competent returning officer in place to help manage the process.

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

I know some questions have already been asked, by my colleague Mr. Godin, about the pending Bill C-31. Have you given any thought to whether there's going to be any holdup in implementing that in a relatively short period of time, should it become law? Because there are some provisions there, as I'm sure you're aware, that are going to take some time to get into place.