The evidence I was looking for was whether this was a problem of voters voting early and often and attempting to corrupt the system by using this piece of identification. The evidence we heard back was “no”. An inaccuracy could be the difference between “apartment 1A” and “apartment 1B”, and this is somehow pumped up to say that somebody is voting fraudulently, when that is clearly not the case.
I rely on our chief electoral officers across the country, and they've repeatedly told us that this is a practice that is used, and used well, particularly for low-income and transient Canadians. There are circumstances and times when this is the best and most available piece of identification, so we need to be able to trust it. If there are inaccuracies that are concerning, then we can certainly talk to Elections Canada about getting better at that.
We know that about 8%, 9%, 10% of the population moves every year, on average, and some parts of the population move a lot more frequently than others, so I wouldn't want to see anything that tells low-income or younger Canadians that we're not interested in their voice come election time because they're not settled enough to have an ID with the right address on it.
There's a piece around using electricity bills and hydro bills and such, which also has some discriminatory effects, particularly against women. If they're in a relationship where their name is not on the bill, which has been a historical practice in this country and others, and people tell them to just bring in a bill, sometimes that doesn't satisfy either.
Why not use something that the federal government prepares and sends to every elector, something that electors can walk in with?