The Parliament of Canada Act says that a by-election has to be called between 11 days after the CEO receives the warrant from the Speaker and 180 days. That's the outer limit, the six-month period. Then it has to be called. That's the current rule.
What that causes, as you know, is late vacancies triggering mandatory by-elections very late in the cycle. The bill contemplates not to have by-elections in the nine months that precede a fixed-date election. However, as drafted, it means that potentially a vacancy could occur less than six months—six months minus a day—before that nine-month period, and then be carried into the nine-month zone of no by-election.
That was not our intent. I don't think it was this committee's intent. The intent was that if there was a vacancy in the nine months, then a by-election would not be called. We wait for the fixed-date election—not nine months plus six. Everybody was on the same page in terms of the intent, but the drafting doesn't get us there.