Evidence of meeting #106 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Distance-wise, it would probably be one of the closest. In terms of political coherence, these are some of the stronger nations on the west coast, for sure.
Liberal
Andy Fillmore Liberal Halifax, NS
We need to be able to show a budget to the subcommittee on committee budgets of the Liaison Committee tomorrow.
The Clerk
My plan is to prepare a budget in time for tomorrow's PROC meeting, based on our discussion this evening.
My question goes back to what Mr. Cullen asked at the beginning: what does a day look like for the committee? Is it a public meeting, this style, with witnesses? Is it open mike, or is it some of both?
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It should be some combination.
If you go to a place like Toronto, you're going to have lots of expertise that you can draw on; maybe in other places, it would be less so. I think it's having some flexibility to do both, and I think the committee would benefit from both.
If we do five days and all we hear from are people who work in a university, that's fine but not exactly comprehensive in terms of our election laws.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It doesn't sound like we touched on it, but holding it on a campus is interesting.
Liberal
Liberal
Andy Fillmore Liberal Halifax, NS
Thank you.
The benefit of the town halls is that social media invitations work. We're getting into an area of my expertise in my previous life, public engagement planning. The nice thing about it also is that witnesses essentially get morphed into becoming invitees. If we want to hear specifically from invitees in that way, perhaps, if they're willing, we could put them on a panel at the front of the room.
These are always expedited planning events. The more flexibility obviously, the more quickly it can be done. We could also involve youth in that way as well, through town halls.
I think we're on the right track with providing the clerk with enough flexibility to come up with something that could work.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
I suppose if we fly in the morning, we could have a meeting in the afternoon at a university, and a open public meeting in the evening.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You break for an hour for dinner, move around, and then.... Usually if you're doing anything public, turnout is much better after six or seven o'clock than it is at five o'clock or in the day.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Perhaps on the idea of flexibility, we should try to build in as much flexibility as possible on that rather than prescribing it, because it may not work doing it cookie cutter for each one.
Ideally perhaps this is what we want to see, but it may be, for the purpose of travel—to get from point A to point B—that there could only be a scheduled public meeting or a town hall, however it works.
I'd recommend building in as much flexibility as possible.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We have Elections Canada waiting here. We should go on to that.
We'll suspend for a minute while they get organized.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Good evening and welcome back to the 106th meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs as we continue our study of Bill C-76, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act and other acts and to make certain consequential amendments. We are pleased to be joined by officials from Elections Canada. Here with us again today are Stéphane Perrault, Acting Chief Electoral Officer; Michel Roussel, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Events and Innovation; and Anne Lawson, General Counsel and Senior Director, Legal Services.
Thank you all for being here.
I forgot to ask, but the clerk will have to know who is going to travel with the committee. The Liaison Committee has a limit of seven people. As soon as parties find out, can you let the clerk know?
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Fill me in here. What does it then become? I'm only worried about the Conservative side here.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Okay, it's two Conservatives. That's what we needed to know. That's all we have to manage.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
I would just remind you that tomorrow morning we have our briefing with the independent members, with the subcommittee, and the second hour is business and discussing Mr. Richards' motion.
With regard to the Chief Electoral Officer, he was just before us recently, and a number of the things were relevant to this bill. He's not going to repeat those. He's handed them out. He's going to talk about the recommendations they have related to this bill and concentrate on those. What he's talking about is different from what he's handed out. What he's handed out, those who were here at the previous meeting have heard about already.
Monsieur Perrault, it's great to have you back again.
Ms. Lawson, it seems you're almost like part of the committee this year.
Stéphane Perrault Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
The clerk wants to know if it's okay if we append his remarks to the evidence so they will go into the evidence. I'm sure that's fine.
