Thank you first of all for this opportunity. I should make clear that I'm speaking solely on my own behalf and on behalf of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. I'm not speaking on behalf of the advisory committee to the Chief Electoral Officer of which I'm a member. I want to just confine my remarks to four points. I think you've been given a one page brief from me.
First, I do think this is a commendable democratic initiative, Bill C-23 in particular, because it seeks to eliminate those practices like robocalling that discredit elections, parties, and candidates associated with them. So that would be the first point that I'd like to make.
Second, I do think there is merit in separating the administration of the elections from the enforcement of election law. I just think that this would allow the Chief Electoral Officer to focus solely on the election administration and allow the independent commissioner to focus entirely and independently on the law enforcement.
The one area where I'd like to suggest the bill can be improved, and I know you've heard a lot of suggestions for improvement, is this. I would like to see the role of Elections Canada and Chief Electoral Officer strengthened with respect to the promotional and educational activities needed to increase voter participation. It seems to me that the biggest challenge that we have with the Canadian electoral system is not its fairness, although one has to address that, but it is this declining participation in elections generally. If we profess to be democrats and I think no matter what our ideological or party divisions are, that we are all democrats here that everybody, Elections Canada, the parties, the candidates, the NGOs should do everything conceivable to get that participation rate up.
I suggest adding a section to the bill where it lists the only topics on which the Chief Electoral Officer can provide information. I suggest adding a fifth clause that says, public education and information programs to make the electoral process better known to the public and increase voter participation should be one of his duties.
The last point I'd make is this. As some of you know, ever since I got out of Parliament, I've been a strong advocate of getting more training and preparation for people seeking elected office, not just themselves but the constituency organizations, campaign managers, anybody that's actively participating in the process. The old idea that we can learn on the job has been the conventional wisdom for a long time. I think in this age of rapid communication it's just not workable.
I've been involved in trying to persuade people to take training if they're going to get into the political arena. When you run into prospective candidates and campaign managers, there is some confusion as to whether investments in training prior to the election might be considered an election expense or a contribution in kind.
To eliminate that confusion, I'd propose an amendment to the bill that simply says that training course expenses, including expenses for education on the subject of the act or on election campaigns, are not election expenses, personal expenses, or electoral campaign expenses under the act.
I do think that one change would make it crystal clear. Our lawyers say that actually these things are not expenses now, but it is unclear. I think that one change would make that crystal clear.
So those are my four points, Mr. Chairman. I won't take longer and I'd be happy to elaborate on any of those or to answer any other questions that you might have.