Evidence of meeting #125 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.
LCdr Jean-François Morin
Exactly. This amendment would restrict it to cases where the number of votes cast is at least 500.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
My esteemed colleague behind me, Mr. Church, provided me the adaptation from Elections Canada from the last election.
Subsection 289(4) states:
Despite subsection (3), where more than 500 votes have been cast at an advance polling station, the returning officer may authorize the count of the votes cast at the advance poll to begin 2 hours before the close of the polling stations on polling day.
This amendment is consistent with Elections Canada's adaptation from the last election, in terms of the 500 number.
Liberal
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I don't understand why we're interfering in the discretion of the Chief Electoral Officer. It seems redundant.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I wouldn't say it's interfering. It's making it consistent with his adaptation in the last election. Consistency is always a strong point when you're dealing with elections. You want predictability.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Is there any further discussion?
(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Could the Conservatives introduce their amendment CPC-76, please.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
This is consistent with the previous amendments that we stood down. It talks about the number of witnesses to observe the count.
This replaces proposed paragraph 289(4)(d), talking about those advance ballots being counted prior to the polls closing. This is similar to the amendment we stood down a few minutes ago, about having the presence of at least two witnesses to observe the count.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
This basically says, then, that there have to be at least two witnesses at every ballot box that's counted.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Yes, we were waiting to hear how onerous this would be. We were giving Elections Canada a little bit of time.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Mr. Chair, it wouldn't make sense for us to move forward with this amendment if we didn't move.... We wouldn't want a different procedure for these counts versus counts that would occur on election day. Perhaps, then, if it's okay with the committee, we'll come back to this one as well.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Yes, we'll stand down this whole clause, with the exception of the amendment we've defeated.
(Clause 197 allowed to stand)
(On clause 198)
We have amendment LIB-23, which may be presented.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
The actual amendment looks simple, but it allows Elections Canada to send bingo sheets to the parties and candidates within six months of the election, which is useful data to have electronically, I think. When I was a staffer I had contracts to enter bingo sheets, and it took a hell of a long time as a campaign staffer. I think it's useful to have them electronically.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Instead of having to go and get the boxes at Elections Canada two weeks after the election and then spend your weekends entering bingo sheets manually, it would have that information sent to all the parties and candidates.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Is there any other discussion?
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
There was an amendment CPC-78, but it was consequential to amendment CPC-72.
(Clause 198 as amended agreed to)
(Clauses 199 to 204 inclusive agreed to)
(On clause 205)
There is proposed amendment CPC-79. We're going to stand it down, because it's linked to the other three that we stood down already. We'll come back to it.
(Clause 205 allowed to stand)
(On clause 206)
We're going to discuss amendment LIB-24.
There are some ramifications here. The vote on LIB-24 also applies to amendments LIB-25 on page 139, LIB-43 on page 269, and LIB-59 on page 316, as they are linked together by the definition of “online platforms”.