Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 7th, 2014

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

That's very nice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for your comments today.

There is a specific issue I'd like to address, and that is the way my colleagues opposite and the Conservatives in general use low voter turnout among youth to justify their efforts to muzzle Elections Canada. They claim that the only reason young people don't vote is that they don't know where or how to do it. Basically, they are saying that Elections Canada can communicate solely about that, even though nothing is stopping them from really focusing on the issue to ensure that everyone has the information and that Elections Canada can continue to offer all of the same programs it does now.

Ms. McCormick, you said your organization works directly with Elections Canada precisely to set up programs that encourage voter turnout among young people. Did I understand that correctly?

[Jessica McCormick]

Yes.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Ms. Demers, do you work with Quebec's chief electoral officer in a similar fashion?

[Élise Demers]

Yes, absolutely.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Do agencies like Elections Canada and Élections Québec, as well as youth groups such as yours, have a deeper, more practical understanding of the factors influencing voter turnout among youth?

[Élise Demers]

Our visions are quite complementary. Research on voter turnout underlies much of what our organization does. We read research done by people like André Blais and François Gélineau in Quebec. Mr. Gélineau is a researcher who does a lot of work on the subject.

We also take into account what's being done internationally when it comes to planning activities that reflect what the research shows. It's important that our efforts complement those of Elections Canada, other relevant agencies and the members here this evening.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you kindly.

I am going to pick up on what you just said about international efforts in my question to Mr. Fraser.

In your presentation, you talked about the importance of a non-partisan review of the reforms being made to the Elections Canada Act. I found that quite interesting and would like you to elaborate, if you would.

[Calvin Fraser]

Our perspective on non-partisan analysis of course is centred on the classroom and centred on the discussion that takes place with students. We work very hard to keep conversations, dialogue, as the honourable member has mentioned, non-partisan while we explore very thoroughly the issues.

We are very gratified to have the support and work of Elections Canada in providing material for that, because in fact it is free from bias and it is material that we can take into classrooms without fear. They've been very good at helping us find material for classrooms and very good at working with us to devise new approaches to actually bringing information to students and to helping students find the information on voting and the value of voting.

One of the projects they helped us with this year was a project by a grade 5 class entitled, “Why I Vote”, which goes right back to a previous question.

Another was a project here in Ottawa with students who prepared all kinds of items, including videotapes, a debate between parliamentarians, and a critique, and they used Elections Canada materials in a non-partisan way.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Fraser.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

You can have a quick question.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

In light of what witnesses have told the committee up to, and including, today, I would like to give a notice of motion. It reads as follows:

That the Committee, in conjunction with the current study of Bill C-23, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and other Acts and to make consequential amendments to certain Acts, request that the Library of Parliament create a summary of the evidence presented to the Committee on this Bill, and that this summary not include any recommendations to the Committee on how to proceed with the legislation, and that this summary be presented to the Committee on or before Tuesday, April 29, 2014, and that this summary of the evidence be subsequently presented as a report by this Committee to the House of Commons

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

We'll go back to Mr. Reid, please, for four minutes.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

In the first round of questioning, my colleague Mr. Richards made reference to obstacles to voting, and Ms. McCormick, you were wondering what his source was. I had the chance, so I asked him. It was Elections Canada's 2011 general election national youth survey report, which can be found on their website.

The study, which looked at a random sample of 1,372 youth, found some interesting things, and I'll just share them with our witnesses.

First of all:

The study found that motivational and access barriers were equally important in terms of their impact on voting.

I continue to quote:

The most commonly cited reasons for not voting related to personal circumstances - being too busy with work, school or family, or travelling at the time - and insufficient knowledge about the parties, candidates and issues.

Some of those obstacles, I would suggest to you, have to do with people being unaware of such options as advanced polls, voting at the returning office, and voting by mail, all of which are items that Elections Canada does not publicize as well as it could. It seems to me that the changes we've made to section 18 of the act that actually enumerate some of these responsibilities would go a long way towards achieving that.

I note as well in the report, and I think this is significant:

The most important access barrier for youth was lack of knowledge about the electoral process, including not knowing about different ways to vote and not knowing how or when to vote, followed by difficulty getting to the polling station, difficulty providing identification or proof of address, and not receiving a voter information card.

It seems to me there are a number of problems that relate to Elections Canada not doing a very good job of informing people of their rights, and this brings me to the question I actually have.

We know that one of the documents that Elections Canada permits as a form of information confirming that you are who you say you are and that you live where you say you live is an attestation of residence, which could be issued by a residence association for someone who is in residence on campus.

As a partial solution to this problem—I don't suggest it's a silver bullet—what do you think of the idea of Elections Canada being mandated or obliged to send a draft of an attestation of residence? They could design a form so you could put your name on it and go down and get it certified by the appropriate authority. They could make sure that those get distributed to people living in residences. Perhaps they could be made available as well at university centres and so on for those who live off campus.

I'm interested in what you think of that as a possible way of ameliorating one of these problems.

[Jessica McCormick]

Well, I certainly don't see anything wrong with exploring other options for proving where you live. That would help only those students who live on campus, and of course, I am talking more generally about students who can live anywhere. But I think that rather than looking at things that we can add or change at this point, we do have a fairly good system in place in vouching that I have used myself and that my friends have used and other students have used. I think it works quite well to do exactly what you've stated.

Students right now can get proof from housing if they wish to vote, but many students who use vouching are often the ones who live off campus and are faced with many of the problems that I outlined in my remarks.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Reid, we'll stop you there. Thank you.

I thank our witnesses for coming tonight. Thank you for your great help in presenting evidence to this committee, and we excuse you. Thank you.

Members, we are finished for this evening. We will see you all in the morning.

This meeting is adjourned.