Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 15th, 2011

[Marc Mayrand]

Sorry, I should have said the fall of 2013.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

That would give us about two years before the fall 2015 election.

[Marc Mayrand]

Almost. But again there's quite a bit of work after.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I understand that, but it's not two years worth of work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

Mr. Garneau.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question also has to do with the timeline. The question has already been put to some extent. How comfortable are you with the timeline? An election must happen at some point. If, for some reason or another, it was sooner than expected and the bill had not yet been passed, at what point would you become nervous, so to speak?

[Marc Mayrand]

In our view, preparations to implement the new electoral boundaries would have to be completed by April 2014. After that, the undertaking would become increasingly risky, and it would be less and less likely that we could be ready for an election in 2015.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

If we agree that it must be ready by April 2014, when would you like to see Bill C-20 come into force?

[Marc Mayrand]

The bill provides for a number of scenarios. All I can do is reiterate that I would obviously prefer to have the bill in effect in February. That would avoid a duplication of efforts, additional costs and, above all, much confusion.

Imagine if the commissions began their work and held public hearings based on a certain formula, and then had to start all over and hold new consultations. It would probably cause some confusion among Canadian voters.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Very well.

Your role, your mandate, under section 14 of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act is to calculate the number of members of the House of Commons to be assigned to each of the provinces in accordance, of course, with the provisions of the Constitution Act. We heard some numbers this morning, and the minister talked about 15 new seats in Ontario, 6 new seats in British Columbia, 6 new seats in Alberta and 3 new seats in Quebec. Is that allocation in line with what you foresee?

[Marc Mayrand]

On a very informal basis, that lines up with our understanding of the proposed formula.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Could there be any surprises, or is that unlikely?

[Marc Mayrand]

Not really, since the formula is, I believe, now based on figures from the provisional census in July. We already know the figures pertaining to the population. So we can apply the formula with certainty.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Okay. Very well.

The representation order comes into force following the first dissolution of Parliament that occurs at least one year after the proclamation. But Bill C-20 mentions seven months. Can you work with that?

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes, that is further to the recommendation my predecessor made a few years back. That is the tightest deadline we could meet as far as implementing the new boundaries goes.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

I have one last question for you.

You read Bill C-20. Given your expertise, are there any amendments you would have liked to make to the bill?

[Marc Mayrand]

A number of the technical amendments are further to recommendations made by my predecessor. Discussions on some of the technical amendments did take place to ensure they could become operational, if I can use that term. I do not anticipate any major difficulties, with the exception of the timeline, as far as the effective implementation of the bill's provisions goes.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you, Mr. Garneau.

Mr. Albrecht, go ahead for four minutes.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Mayrand, for being here today.

In the middle paragraph of page 4 in your opening comments, you talk about the role of this committee in the redistribution process. In response to a question by Mr. Lukiwski, you mentioned the two opportunities for members of Parliament to have input: at the public hearings and then again presenting to this committee. Your last paragraph says that for those MPs to file a written objection, there must be a motion signed by no fewer than ten MPs.

I just want to clarify: members of this committee will have input one on one, but those who are not members of this committee would need to have a motion signed by nine other MPs for it to be heard by this committee. Am I interpreting that correctly, or have I misread that?

[Marc Mayrand]

I believe it's by ten. For the committee to look at objections, it must receive a motion signed by ten MPs.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Okay. Well, that was new to me.

[Marc Mayrand]

It's a requirement of the legislation.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thanks for clarifying that. It was certainly new to me.

Later on in your opening statement you refer to the other changes that Bill C-20 brings into place: establishing electoral boundaries, having boundary commissions sooner in the process, commencing hearings earlier, and so on. I just want to confirm that, as you look through these changes, these are ones the electoral officials are able to easily implement.

[Marc Mayrand]

They are doable. I think based on past experience we estimate that maybe three provinces would require a two-month time extension, but otherwise it's doable within the timeframe provided in the legislation.