Thank you. My opening statement is very brief.
From the end of World War II until 1988 voter turnout in Canada was in the order of about 75%. In the five elections since 1993 turnout has sharply declined and now ranges between about 61% and 65%. The intent of Bill C-16 is to reverse this trend and to do so largely by increasing the number of advanced polling opportunities. I believe the intent to increase voter turnout is non-controversial. It's widely held that higher turnout is better than lower turnout. There is some dispute, however, about whether this is the best or perhaps even a good way to increase voter turnout.
In a review of declaration voting—and declaration voting includes such things as absent voting, postal voting, and advanced voting, among others—undertaken by the Australian Electoral Commission in 2004, the following observations were made. First, there has been an increase in declaration voting from about 12.6% of all votes in 1993, to 15.9% in 2001. Second, one of the major reasons for this, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, is societal change. The nature of societal changes that were identified in that study included things such as changing work patterns, changing retail shopping hours, increased mobility, and changed family and living arrangements. Third, this has led to increases in so-called convenience declaration voting. I think the trends that were experienced in Australia are very similar to trends in Canada.
In its report the Australian Electoral Commission also concluded that declaration voting presents difficulties to electoral administrators. They concluded that declaration voting results in increased costs of elections and increased or perhaps more complicated challenges facing electoral administrators in the processing of votes.
In his presentation to this committee, Canada's Chief Electoral Officer was reported to have identified these administrative costs for Canada. The additional costs and administrative challenges need to be considered carefully and weighed against the prospect of the effect of this legislation on increased turnout.
To make this assessment, I believe it would be useful to see some additional research on a variety of reform alternatives to compare the relative costs and effectiveness.
Thank you.