Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 17th, 2018

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Correct.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

That seems rather important.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

You're exempting that local stuff from the party limit.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

You can put out your flyer with your own face and the party's face on it, but without this amendment, you wouldn't be able to do that without affecting the party itself.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll go back to Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm thinking of another example of how this might be caught. I have a large rural riding, not nearly as large as some, and not nearly as large as our chair's, for example, but I'm thinking more of radio stations in an urban setting. If you had a Montreal riding, let's say a small riding, Papineau, for example, which is one of the smallest ridings in Canada, and if you were to run a pre-election ad on the radio, a Montreal radio station that is going to hit many Montreal ridings, even though it's paid for by the small riding of Papineau, is that something that would be caught under this amendment? You could say it was meant for just that tiny riding, but it's hitting the entire city.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Really, at this point it would be a question of interpretation in the context of a specific case. If multiple electoral district associations covering the area where the radio station is located were all to participate in this advertising campaign, then it would probably be fine.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

If they weren't, though, if it were just the one riding association, would it probably not be fine?

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

I can give you the example of The Globe and Mail. If an EDA is trying to publish an ad in The Globe and Mail in the electoral district where The Globe and Mail is printed, clearly it goes way beyond the scope of this exception.

We need to draw a line somewhere. The intent is really to allow EDAs to communicate with the local population in the riding.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

So running an ad that says, “Vote for Justin Trudeau, your Papineau candidate” could potentially be caught in that.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

In a national distribution newspaper? No.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

In a city-wide, Montreal—

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

No, it needs to be within the electoral district.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

In that case, a radio ad that's going across the city would be caught. That is your interpretation.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We're ready for the vote on LIB-39, which also applies to LIB-54. They are linked by reference.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 271 as amended agreed to)

There are no amendments for clauses 272 to 277.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Chair, could we do clause 272 on division?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay.

(Clause 272 agreed to on division)

(Clauses 273 to 277 inclusive agreed to)

New clause 277.1 is being proposed.

Nathan, could you introduce this so that I could make a ruling?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

There's a certain ominous tone in your voice, Mr. Chair.

It seems to be a common sense kind of thing. We're asking for equity statistics to be released on nominations, and collected.

Political parties self-publish some of these some of the time, but not consistently and not in a consistent manner. They're reporting it to Elections Canada, the Chief Electoral Officer, I believe. Oh, excuse me, this would seek to extend it to the Chief Electoral Officer. This is about gender and sexual orientation. It would not identify each nominee, but it would give the universal totals—how many women the Liberals nominated, how many Conservatives, LGBTQ. It's just a way to statistically understand how the nomination part of this democracy is working out. Are we getting more representation or less? Who's doing more and who's doing less?

Also, I think this could be helpful to some Canadians, particularly those interested in getting involved in politics. It would also require parties to describe the nomination voting process—is it a preferential ballot, is it a straight round voting, how did each party nominate their...? There's no requirement to do that right now. I think it is interesting.

I don't see this as even being controversial, but perhaps it is. Again, most parties self-describe, but it's not done consistently. Any Canadian interested in knowing how many women are being nominated, or LGBTQ candidates, can't compare apples to apples. Just to underline, it wouldn't reveal candidate X and riding Y. It's a universal approach.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

This amendment intends to add information to the nomination contest report that is to be filed with the Chief Electoral Officer under section 476.1 of the act. This goes beyond the scope of the bill and aims to amend a section of the act that's not open to amendments by the bill.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

May I ask a question? When dealing with the act itself and dealing with Bill C-76, which affects many parts of the act and creates new sections of the act.... Is that fair to say?

Maybe “sections” might be the wrong term. Bill C-76 introduces new concepts into the act itself. Is that fair to say?

[Philippe Méla]

Within the bill, do you mean?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Yes.

[Philippe Méla]

Yes.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay, so how do we prescribe scope limits on saying that this concept under this amendment...? Can amendments just not do it, but the bill itself can? Is that essentially it?