Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 5th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We will get started. I apologize for being just a minute late here.

Monsieur Mayrand, after many attempts, it's good to have you here today. I know you'll have some opening comments. If you'd like to start with those, please, introduce the guests you have with you today, and then we'll do some rounds of questioning after that.

[Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for inviting me to discuss the 2014-2015 main estimates for my office.

I am accompanied, on my right, by Mr. Hughes St-Pierre, Chief Financial and Planning Officer, Mr. Belaineh Deguefé, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Integrated Services, Policy and Public Affairs and Mr. Michel Roussel, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Events.

Prior to discussing my office's report on plans and priorities, I wish to remind the committee that, at the time of preparing our main estimates, Bill C-23 had yet to be introduced. As a consequence, the priorities outlined in the report will need to be reviewed and adjusted. We will also review our operating budget and draw on the statutory authority to deal with additional expenditures that may be required.

I would like to appear before the committee again in the fall to give you more information on our progress in implementing the provisions of the Canada Elections Act; on key changes for the next general election in this new operating context; and on our initial budget estimates for that election. As we continue our preparations, I would like to underline my commitment, and that of my staff, to implementing the provisions of the act in a timely and effective manner.

Today, the committee is studying our annual appropriation, which is $30.5 million. This represents the salaries of approximately 350 full-time-equivalent employees. Combined with our statutory authority, which funds all other expenditures under the Canada Elections Act, our 2014-15 main estimates total $97.1 million. This is a $18.7 million decrease from our 2013-14 main estimates. There are three main reasons for it: the phasing out of quarterly allowances to political parties, a $7.4 million decrease; the completion of the main components of our office consolidation project, a $9.3 million decrease; and the conclusion of the redistribution of electoral districts, a $2.5 million decrease.

The major focus of my office for this fiscal year is completing preparatory work and mobilizing our resources to achieve a state of election readiness for an election called after April 2015. In preparation for a 2015 general election, we are improving the services required for voters. This includes implementing the provisions of Bill C-23. Our overall objectives are to ensure the integrity of the conduct of elections and make it easier for Canadians to register and vote. I would like to explain some of this work in more detail.

As indicated in our management response to the 2013 compliance review report, we are planning additional administrative measures to improve compliance with election day procedures. These include improved recruitment practices, modernized training, and when possible, simplified procedures and clearer instructions for election workers.

Record-keeping errors occur when election officers handle exceptions, such as voters whose names do not appear on the list. To address this issue, we will pursue measures to ensure that we have the most accurate and current voters list possible on election day.

This year, Elections Canada will introduce a new voter registration system. This system will combine a new, online registration service with a new approach to revising the voters list during an election, one that targets polling divisions known for high volumes of polling day registrations, and it will promote voter registration among first-time electors. To make this possible, my office has invested in developing a secure national voter database that can be updated in real time by returning officers and electors themselves during an election.

We are also making improvements to the electoral reminder program, which is our multi-media advertising and information campaign for elections. It delivers information to electors on where, when, and how to register and vote, and how to provide their identity and address.

For the next general election, information will be provided in a wide variety of new formats. There will be frequent reminders to ensure that Canadians know how to register and know their options for voting: on election day, at advance polls, by mail, or at their local Elections Canada office.

One important focus will be on reaching electors before the issue of the writs through targeted promotion of online registration to reduce the registration at the poll.

I have provided members with a handout that summarizes the goal of the program, the channel we will use to connect with electors, and the general timing of its rollout.

Finally, we will offer increased specialty communications for people with varying abilities, such as products in Braille or large print, open- and closed-captioned videos, and specialty audio broadcasts. As well, our website will describe the accessibility of individual polling sites. We will also continue to provide information in numerous aboriginal and heritage languages.

Another priority this fiscal year will be, of course, to implement the new provisions of the act resulting from Bill C-23. I will mention only two aspects today.

First, Bill C-23 moves the Commissioner of Canada Elections from our agency to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. My officials have initiated discussion with that office for the transfer of the commissioner and his staff.

Second, Bill C-23 requires the Chief Electoral Officer to issue non-binding guidelines and interpretation notes as well as written opinions on the application of the act to registered parties and associations, nomination contestants, candidates, and leadership contestants. We plan to convene the advisory committee of political parties in the fall to determine an approach and forward agenda for addressing these provisions. I intend to use this opportunity to formalize the committee's role as an advisory body to the Chief Electoral Officer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My colleagues and I are happy to answer questions that the committee may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayrand.

I'll go to Mr. Reid, for seven minutes, please.

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

Mr. Mayrand, your final comment brings me to the question I had meant to raise anyway, which is that the Commissioner of Canada Elections, assuming Bill C-23 becomes the law of the land, gets through the other place and gets royal assent, will move to the Director of Public Prosecutions' office. With him he'll take not only his personnel but obviously the financial needs necessary to deal with the core funding. I'm aware that he receives funding for investigations directly out of the consolidated revenue fund, but he has core funding, which I gather from his report—actually, I'm a little uncertain of this in asking this question—amounts to the salary of his six indeterminate employees and has a total of $541,000.

Is that right, or is there a larger amount associated with his ongoing expenses?

[Marc Mayrand]

There is a larger amount. The amount that has been identified right now is $1.3 million to cover the salary of 14 individuals, full-time employees.

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

Okay. I don't know how you dealt with this in your submission. Did you subtract that amount out of...because it would have been part, I assume, of the budget envelope that came to you. Have you taken it out?

[Marc Mayrand]

It will be reduced next year, as soon as this comes into place. Yes.

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

Thank you. That's very helpful. Thank you for being conscientious about that.

I want to turn to one of the issues that arises naturally as we deal with the commissioner moving over. We have to look at his budget. We have to try to anticipate how much he is going to need both in terms of those employees and the standing budget but also in terms of the investigations that he conducts. I wanted to ask something with regard to this.

He submitted a report last September. In his report he states on page 7 that his investigations were driven from two sources. Number one is complaints from the public and from political entities. He cites in the fiscal year 2012 ending March 31, last year, 37 complaints from the public and political entities and also 210 referrals from within Elections Canada. I am assuming that this effectively means that your office has been responsible for all 210 of those. You find some kind of issue and you....

[Marc Mayrand]

Those issues would have related to political and finance matters, yes.

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

Okay. He gives as well on page 9 of his report a list of the caution letters he issued, 46 caution letters. He breaks it down by whom they went to, how many went to official agents, how many went to electoral district associations, contributors, and so on. On the next page he deals with compliance agreements of which there were two in that year.

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the only reporting we've ever had. I stand to be corrected but I believe this is the only reporting we've ever had on what the nature of these orders, agreements, and so on is. Is there any other publicly available source of information that you've made available, or he has, over the course of the period you've served in this role that would aid us in knowing what has been done and to what degree how many such agreements?

[Marc Mayrand]

In terms of charges being laid under the act, that's available on our website. In terms of compliance agreements, they're also published. In fact, these are also published in the Canada Gazette, but are available on our website. In terms of the reference and complaints, the data on these would be found either in the election report following the GE, or found in our DPR, our annual report.

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

I would be able to find out, if I were to consult your annual reports from previous years. For example, the report for the relevant period, I would be able to find out about the 210 referrals, broken down by what section of the act was thought to, perhaps, have been contravened. Is that correct?

[Marc Mayrand]

I would have to look at it again. I'm not sure it's broken down. There are aggregate numbers provided.

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

Right.

[Marc Mayrand]

Again, this report from the commissioner was a first. It's something he intended to perform annually so there would be a little bit better information about his activities and the outcomes of his activities.

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

Right, and I'm very grateful he did it.

Is there any breakdown of some of the things it would seem to me to be reasonable to be concerned about, to see which parts of the act the referrals were given for each of the relevant years, which parties and candidates were found or were thought to have violated the act, so we could take a look and see how that splits out?

Is that available?

[Marc Mayrand]

We could certainly produce it. If that's the desire of the committee, we can produce that information.

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

I, for one—

[Marc Mayrand]

We can build it into our annual performance report.

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

Okay. I, for one, would be very grateful if you would put it in your reports in the future. If you're able to give it for the past few years—I don't know, say the past five—to give us an idea of where you believe there have been problems, which parts of the act, and who you think has caused it, that would be great.

I want to turn finally in my last minute, Mr. Chair, to the question of one particular very substantial repayment of funds that took place. This was the repayment of $347,000 by the New Democratic Party for funds they'd received from unions over the course of three conventions. They complied with an order from you to do so, but it seems clear from the fact that they had correspondence with you going back several years that you must have been aware that they were in non-compliance with the act.

I'm wondering, in that kind of situation, do you only act when you receive a complaint externally? Do you never refer potential violations of that sort unless they're referred by an outside source?

[Marc Mayrand]

No. I think if we can detect it we will act on it like any other matter. Sometimes matters are brought to our attention through complaints, or sometimes through media reports. I think in this case it came out from a media report in the U.S. initially.

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

A letter from Arthur Hamilton, the—

[Marc Mayrand]

And we looked into it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you, Mr. Reid. Your seven minutes is up.

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

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayrand.