Evidence of meeting #124 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 election.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jean-François Morin  Senior Policy Advisor, Privy Council Office
Stephanie Kusie  Calgary Midnapore, CPC
Manon Paquet  Senior Policy Advisor, Privy Council Office
Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Philippe Méla

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Well, half a sandwich is always better than no sandwich at all.

10:25 a.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Can that amendment be made on the fly, Chair, through you to our clerks?

10:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

So instead of “the same electoral district”, it would say “the same polling station”.

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Is that the accurate term, “polling station”?

10:25 a.m.

LCdr Jean-François Morin

It is.

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

It's one iteration up.

10:25 a.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Yes, it's something.

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

It's something. I appreciate it.

We'll have to amend that.

10:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Okay.

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

The change would be “polling station”.

10:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Right. We're changing the words “electoral district” to “polling station”.

This just allows someone to vouch for someone who can vote at the same station, and it can be from different divisions that are located at that station.

Mrs. Kusie, go ahead.

10:30 a.m.

Calgary Midnapore, CPC

Stephanie Kusie

Would a station ever have more than one riding in it? No? Okay.

Thank you.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Because this one applies to five other ones, Philippe is looking up the ramifications.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON

Could we stand down for five minutes?

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Okay, we'll have a five-minute break.

We'll suspend.

10:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

We're ready to resume the meeting.

We'll go back to NDP-8 and the proposed amendment. It does have some ramifications, but I won't bother going through them all, because they're fairly administrative until we decide what's happening on this one.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Do you want me to get into Liberal-13 or just stick with NDP-8 for now?

10:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Just stay with NDP-8. You can mention Liberal-13 as a background.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Okay. As I just mentioned to colleagues across the table, as we sort of cast ahead, Maria on my team pointed out that, when we get down to vouching in the case of a nurse or a nurse's aide, in the situation where we have electors in a long-term care facility, Liberal-13 does not require them to be in the same electoral district; they can be in an adjacent electoral district. We just have to figure out the consistencies within the law. If Liberal-13 is going to be supported and passed, which I imagine it is, that sets a practice here where we have somebody vouching outside of the electoral district. We have to be careful that there is consistency. The concern is that the voucher be an actual voter.

How would Elections Canada handle that to verify that the person—in this case the nurse or nurse's aide or whatever—is an elector, even if they're not in the same electoral district? I don't want to get into LIB-13, but I just want this to be consistent, or at least somewhat consistent, across the board.

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Is there any discussion?

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Can we have it when we get to LIB-13 maybe?

10:45 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Well, you see how they're connected. I appreciate the amendment on this to get something, some progress, in terms of vouching without the constraints that exist right now. I just anticipate that the arguments need to be consistent. They don't need to be, but they ought to be. It's nice when they are.

10:45 a.m.

A voice

Nathan, where do you think we are?

10:45 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

I don't know where we are. Sorry, I lost my—