Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
A good part of my amendment is very similar to the one that was just defeated, but it has additional clauses that are worth describing.
As you can tell, the goal here, and again these were recommendations from a number of witnesses, certainly the Chief Electoral Officer and Democracy Watch, and a few others, I believe, calling for the preservation of the telephone numbers that were called as an integral part of keeping track of the use of these kinds of campaign tools, especially if they're going to be misused. It would be a very good way to check, for instance, if it was a legitimate call or an illegitimate call, based on robocall servers having a list of the telephone numbers. If a telephone number was called that was never on that list, you'd have a pretty good sense you're looking for someone else.
But the second part of my amendment also deals with the commissioner having the ability to...and it is part of Elections Canada's brief at the bottom of page 6. There should be a mechanism not involving a court order for the commissioner to obtain access to call scripts or recordings, or to request that they be preserved beyond one year if a court order is anticipated. This particular provision that I'm putting forward is actually modelled on something that may look familiar to government members on the other side. It's actually modelled on Bill C-13's preservation demand provisions in the online bullying bill, to ensure that there can be a request that material be preserved before it might be destroyed in the ordinary course of business.
So I think I've probably given you enough details on this, Mr. Chair. It does make the system more robust. More critical information is preserved, and it is also more accessible to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, who without having to go to court for a court order, can just ask the companies that have that material in their possession to retain it and preserve it.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.