Mr. Chair, this is related to, but sufficiently different that it wasn't captured in the passage of government amendment G-2. It deals with the same issue that has been raised by the current Chief Electoral Officer, that when coming up with an interpretation decision, he needs to be able to consider information that's relevant and take into account what the Chief Electoral Officer himself believes is relevant.
You have before you my amendment to clause 5. It's amending line 7 on page 6. For the aid of committee members, let me read how amended clause 5 would read with my amendment included. It would now say, and this is on page 6, at proposed subsection (4):
The Chief Electoral Officer shall, in preparing the guideline or interpretation note, take into consideration any comments received under subsection (3)—
This is the part that this amendment would add:
and any other information that, in the opinion of the Chief Electoral Officer, is necessary to its preparation.
Again, we're dealing with someone who is expert in the field, who may want to reach out to other sources of information. We don't want to shackle the Chief Electoral Officer such that he or she is unable to pursue other relevant information that will assist in the preparation of a guideline or interpretation note. I'm hoping that this is one that's sufficiently non-controversial. Of course, it comes from Mr. Mayrand as a request, but I'm hoping the government members might see their way to approve this.
To reinforce for government members, it doesn't change any timelines; it just allows the preparation of the interpretation note or guideline to have full access to other significant, relevant information that the Chief Electoral Officer believes is necessary to the preparation of the note.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.