Evidence of meeting #54 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 loans.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you.
It would appear to the chair that we have run out of questions for our witnesses.
Oh, Mr. Lukiwski. You have short arms. I didn't see them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I've been here all day, colleagues, so if you want to raise your hands, it would be nice to get them up high. I'm going to go to Monsieur Godin, because it's the order of the day. Then we'll go back to Mr. Lukiwski.
Monsieur Godin.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would also like to thank you for being here with us. I too am curious as to why you were not consulted on the bill, especially since your predecessor had made recommendations. I asked the minister why that had not been done as part of Bill C-2, so that we could have already had legislation to that effect rather than have to examine another bill; those recommendations had been made. But those people said that they wanted to take their time in order to have a better bill. In my view, they should have consulted Elections Canada officials to check whether they were satisfied with the bill. They could have also asked for their advice. They would not have had to act on it, but they could have at least listened to them. That way, the bill could have been clearer, and we wouldn't have had to do so much work. We now have to restart the process and get the machinery going again.
You said earlier that you did not have a written presentation with you. I personally would like to further examine the issues you will have raised. We will have to see whether a piece of the puzzle is missing. That would be important.
As for the 18 months, if the loan is given about 1 year before the election, it will have to be repaid before the election. What date would you recommend? The date of the election?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It would be on the date of the event itself, depending on the circumstances. In this case, it would be on polling day. That would standardize the rules.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
As you said earlier, we are not allowed to remortgage our houses—but what about a line of credit?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
What do you mean?
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I, for example, have a line of credit. I only have to write a cheque.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
To my mind, that constitutes a loan.
NDP
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That is correct.
You would have to negotiate a loan pursuant to the statutory rules. It would therefore be a campaign loan and would be limited to $1,100.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes, that is the limit that applies, be it for a loan, a surety, or a credit guarantee.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. I would like to take out a loan, if you would be kind enough to lend me $1,100.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
You have tons of time left. Please don't apologize; everything's okay.
Do you have anything further, Monsieur Godin?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I just want to bring precision here.
If your line of credit is with a financial institution, then there's....
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Mr. Lukiwski, second round of questions now, so I will keep you to five minutes, please.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Sure. Thank you, Chair.
Just one quick comment, perhaps, and a question. The comment, just to underscore what Monsieur Godin was saying in response to Mr. Guimond with respect to your not being consulted, I would suggest that the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer certainly was consulted extensively, because your predecessor had written a report in January 2007, which Madame Robillard has requested.
The minister and the government took a lot of advice from that report into construction of this bill, so there was extensive consultation with your office, and I'd just like that to be on the record.
I want to bring to your attention a situation my colleague had raised in his interventions with the minister. The minister wasn't quite sure how to deal with it, so I'd ask your opinion. A situation that could occur with this right now is if you guarantee or put your name down as a guarantor on a bank loan, your limit would be $1,100 because it would be viewed with the same limits as a contribution.
Let's hypothetically assume a situation occurred where I guaranteed $1,100 for a loan for another candidate, for Joe, my good friend Joe, because Joe is, of course, penniless. Then his riding association goes out and does a lot of fundraising. They raise a lot of funds and they pay off the loan. In other words, my guarantee of $1,100 has been expunged because the loan has been paid off.
Would I then be prevented from contributing another $1,100 to either my campaign or someone else's campaign in the same year?
