Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 7th, 2015

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

Thanks.

I'll be very brief. I just want to respond to Mr. Christopherson's earlier comments. I don't know if he said that he didn't want to impugn the motives of the government or would certainly almost retract his statements if he had impugned the motives of the government on some of these key questions. Unfortunately, of course, the minister has not yet appeared before committee to answer the questions that the opposition may have, and frankly, some of our questions as well, but I know he will be coming. I believe he's scheduled for the 28th. Frankly, I wish he could come a bit before then, but unfortunately his schedule doesn't permit.

I can assure you from the government's standpoint that there's no ulterior motive here to deny people the right to vote. That is simply not the intention nor the objective of this bill. If there are problems or perceived problems as identified by members of the opposition, the person to speak with obviously would be the minister. But for the record, I want to point out that all we are attempting to do in Bill C-50 is to ensure the propriety, the accuracy, and the legitimacy of the vote. If that is not understood by the opposition, I'm here to enforce that.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much.

We're going to end there, but please allow me one question from the previous hour that I forgot to ask because the chair doesn't ask very many questions.

You mentioned that you're well ahead even on preparing voter identification cards.

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Do you have an idea when numbered polls or poll maps will be out to the individual ridings? I was asked to ask you that.

[Marc Mayrand]

As soon as the writ is issued....

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We will not know poll numbers in individual ridings until—

[Marc Mayrand]

You have received a list recently. The problem is that we're changing to the new maps, and that is coming into effect only when the next election is called. What we provided as an alternative is that you have a key in the documents we send you, the data we send you, and that allows you to transfer the data under the 308 ridings to the data under the 338 ridings, but I cannot provide you with an exact poll division at this point in time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

It was my understanding that May 1 was the date. Was I incorrect on that? It will be when the writ is dropped before individual ridings can tell where polls are?

[Marc Mayrand]

Yes, that's something I raised before. Again, we need to change the legislation. That's how the legislation reads—

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay. That's our job.

[Marc Mayrand]

—and mind you, we're running byelections now. We're running them under the 308 ridings until they are superseded. The candidates who are running in the three byelections right now are running under the old map.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I see that I've started some questions here, but my understanding in correspondence from you was that for any election that came after May 1 of this year you would be able to run it under the 338.

[Marc Mayrand]

I'm able, but I cannot until the election is called, so all byelections have to be run under the old map, and that's something we need to discuss with political parties and candidates, because it could raise all sorts of issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Certainly.

Mr. Lukiwski, real quick, for a one-off, and then Mr. Scott for a one-off.

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

Yes, this is back more on the main estimates than Bill C-50. I forgot to ask it originally, so my apologies for that.

I just received information that I need some clarification on from you. It's in regard to what's considered to be pre-writ expenses for an EDA, and it's in regard to polling. If an EDA conducted a poll that was requested by the EDA and not promoted whatsoever by the candidate, and that poll was on a number of questions, on policy questions and other questions, including the horse-race question—electoral preference—I know that in previous years if it was conducted outside of the election period it wasn't considered a campaign expense. My understanding is that now it might be considered a campaign expense. Can you clarify that for me?

[Marc Mayrand]

The short answer is no. We're just in the process of issuing a revised handbook as a result of changes in Bill C-23. That's in process. We have consulted with political parties, and again, there's been no change there.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Scott, on whatever issue you want to talk about.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Yes, I have a very quick question. It almost merges not with a point of order but with a procedural matter.

Monsieur Mayrand, would you be prepared to allow any of your officials to come back, with you or not, on some of the more technical aspects of the bill? Because many of the things in this document were just too much to get through in an hour.

[Marc Mayrand]

Our rules can be complex, yes.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

If the committee were to want that, would you be open to allowing your officials to come?

[Marc Mayrand]

Absolutely, as we've done in the past, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We certainly found Monsieur Mayrand and his staff to be more than accommodating to answer our questions in whatever way the committee asks.

I thank all of you for coming in today, and thank you again for appearing for a whole two hours of our meeting.

If there's nothing else for the committee today, we are adjourned.