Evidence of meeting #15 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was returns.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That's the preliminary payment. Then there has to be a final payment. We estimate that 680 of the 931 candidates will receive an additional payment.
Conservative
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Okay, that helps.
Secondly, of the 1,602 candidates, you said that, as of this time, 255 audits have already been completed. Will they all be audited?
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
So that's a little more than one-eighth of the total number of candidates. There's a lot of work still to be done.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes. There goes the summer.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
No vacation this year.
In the last paragraph you talk about increasing the number of advance polling stations in rural areas. I represent a fairly large rural area. Do you have criteria as to how you would increase that number? Will it be x number of polling stations per square kilometre, x number per thousand voters? What kind of criteria do you expect to use to give some kind of balance across the country?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
First of all, we're asking returning officers to engage riding associations, candidates, and parliamentarians in the various ridings to identify the needs there. Then we will get to the financial aspect of it. We will certainly consider the geography, the population, and already existing usage of advance polls in certain areas. There's quite a variance among ridings. We will also have to factor in the availability of sites, because that's another significant factor. All these factors combined will govern the decision to add a number of voting sites.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you.
It's probably too early to project or speculate as to what percentage increase you would see in the number of advance polling stations in rural areas, whether it would be a 3%, 5%, 15%, or 20% increase. Do you have a ballpark figure?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It's too early, and I did not set an objective. I wanted to have the exercise locally through each riding. From that we will determine, and a cost-benefit analysis will have to be made.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
In terms of speculation, it's probably also too early to speculate on what type of ID will be acceptable. Have you mentioned that and I missed it this morning? What other kinds of ID are you considering? In your last paragraph you talk about improvements to include incremental changes to the list of acceptable ID.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I did receive a number of suggestions from various groups in the last several months. One that comes to mind is the Métis card, that maybe it should be added to the list. The CNIB card could be added to the list. There are a number of pieces that have been suggested for consideration, and we are considering them right now.
In addition, as I mentioned earlier, to my mind the most significant issue, the most systemic issue, is around the proof of address. My suggestion to the committee is that we look at the VIC as being an acceptable piece of ID to establish name and address, the VIC in combination with another document. That's the voter identification card.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Some rural areas simply have rural route numbers and others have the fire code. That's a real problem in some areas as well. Is that another area...?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That's been resolved by Bill C-18. So even though it shows a rural road or a mailing address as opposed to a residential address, if the elector is on the list and registered, we have both addresses. So we can correlate the mailing and the residential address.
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Mr. St-Pierre, Ms. Côté.
Three weeks ago, or thereabouts, the returning officer in my riding paid me a visit to discuss advance polls. We shared with him a series of recommendations and we had a nice discussion. Let me just say that the returning officer was well briefed for this meeting.
Will our returning officer's report be made public? Will we be able to consult it to see if he took our recommendations into consideration?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
All of the reports will be sent to our office, and since they are public documents, they will be subject to the Access to Information Act. There will be no secrets.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
They are not on your web site. Therefore, we will need to make an access to information request. Have all of the reports been turned in?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The process will be completed by the end of the summer and decisions will have to be made then. I would guess that the process will be completed by September 1.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
So then, as of September 1, we should know the final outcome of the recommendations by riding.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes, along with the number of polls that will be added. The exact location of these polling stations will vary somewhat, because there is a great deal of movement. As of September 1, you should know how many new advance polls are being set up.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Fine.
My official agent asked me a question and I want to take this opportunity to put it to you. Is it possible for MPs who have received their final reimbursement and whose file has been closed and audited to find out if they are in fifth or sixth position, for example? Is there some kind of document on your web site that they can consult?
