Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 1st, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We're going to get there I think now. All in favour of clause 53 as amended?

(Clause 53 as amended agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I'm digging down because some of these went away while I was working on others.

(On clause 57)

We're on G-12.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I move G-12, Mr. Chair.

It's similar to G-6 and G-9, which are the provisions requiring poll workers to warn those who are taking oaths and attesting to one taking an oath of the penalties for making false statements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We've certainly discussed this one, G-12. All in favour?

(Amendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 57 as amended agreed to on division)

(On clause 58)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

On PV-36, we have Ms. May.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Sorry, I went through a whole bunch there all at once, but you just happened to catch it.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

No, that's okay.

No other party has an amendment like this, and it does take some explanation. It also takes some sensitivity as to why I'm bringing this forward.

Let me just state at the outset that a previously non-controversial—I haven't seen anything in the media about it, but I think it's quite significant—portion of C-23 has been to create four new advance poll days. I'm certainly very much in favour of more advance polls. However, one of these days will forevermore, as a mandatory rule, fall on a Sunday. That's the first time in the history of Canada that we have had a profound civic engagement mandated on a Sunday.

Now, this country has moved a long way, and for good reason, since 1906 and the Lord's Day Act. It said that as much as the state could decree it, people could not be busy on Sundays. You couldn't keep your store open; you couldn't do things on Sunday. I'm certainly not trying to prevent people from doing the day-to-day things that an increasingly secular society wants to do on a Sunday. However, had this law been in place in 2011, we would have had mandatory advance polls across Canada on Easter Sunday.

I do know that the Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed concern when there was a mandatory advance poll on Good Friday in the 2011 election.

It should go without saying that the Prime Minister can choose to avoid such things as advance polls falling on such sacred days as Good Friday by choosing an election day that is further out than the mandatory minimum number of days. There is some flexibility about what days on which advance polls will fall.

In this case, there will be no way that any future prime minister, short of amending the act, will be able to avoid an advance poll falling on a Sunday. I have raised this in debate in the House at second reading. Conservative members of Parliament expressed the view that they wouldn't personally vote on a Sunday and that people certainly have the choice of not voting on a Sunday, and that a vast number of Canadians don't find it a trouble to observe the Sabbath because they don't.

My concerns are twofold. One is the impact on those who must attend at advance polls, and they will include scrutineers who volunteer, as well as poll workers, as well as Elections Canada folks. They will have to be engaged on a Sunday. There is an issue of their religious observances, which one might agree for a large number of Canadians happen to fall on a Sunday. The other concern, regardless of religious concerns, bears on the logistics. Quite a lot of polling stations in this country are co-located in churches.

My amendment proposes to move that extra advance polling date to a Saturday. A lot of churches have no problem whatsoever, and as a matter of fact benefit from having the polling station at the church on the corner. Everybody knows where it is. On Fridays and Saturdays, it doesn't make any difference.

But I think it's going to create a lot of logistical problems of real significance. Again, whenever we're changing how people vote, where people vote, it can create more confusion. I think this amendment will resolve and avoid both potential difficulties for practising Christians, as well as avoiding logistical difficulties for churches that serve as polling stations.

I would ask my friends in the Conservative party to support my amendment so there would be four advance polling days, but it will not include a Sunday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Madame Latendresse.

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

I would like to ask Ms. Day for some clarifications. First, I want to point out that “treizième” was misspelled in the French version.

Second, mathematically speaking, a Saturday before the election cannot be the 13th day before the election because the vote is held on Monday. So Saturday, two weeks prior to polling day, would be the 16th day before the election, and not the 13th.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

This text is the result of an effort by the whole team, not only of my office but also of other parliamentarians who did the count. I will do some math regarding the calendar.

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

If you do the math, you see that Saturday is the 16th day before the election. I think that 16 days before the general election is too early for advance polls.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

You are right. It is the 16th day.

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

Holding an advance vote on Sunday may have some drawbacks, but Quebec already does this in its provincial election. I think the disadvantages of having advance polls on Sunday, instead of 16 days before the election, are not reason enough for us to support this amendment.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, could the amendment be corrected to indicate that it's the 16th day?

The intent of the motion is clear: to have advance polling stations open on Saturday, two weeks before the election.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I would just pretend it's a subamendment from Madame Latendresse and that would have handled that. We would change the 13 to 16. It's just a way to move it forward.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Does Ms. Latendresse agree?

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

This is not about changing the motion. It's about the fact that the information provided is mathematically impossible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Right. Okay. We'll assume we're on an amendment to the amendment, but let's just take the whole thing into account in our conversation.

Mr. Lukiwski.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Just quickly, pursuant to what Alexandrine was saying, I was just going to point this out. You're saying a Friday is the 14th day before election day, but it's not. Fourteen days before a Monday is not Friday.

[A voice]

It's Saturday.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

But it says here, “open between the hours of noon and 8:00 p.m. on Friday that is the 14th day before polling day”. Well, 14 days before....

[A voice]

Are you on PV-36?

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Yes, I am. I have the English. Whether it's 14 or 16, it's still....

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay, it's a different.... We went too far.