Evidence of meeting #127 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 elections.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Robert Sampson  Legal Counsel, Legal Services, Elections Canada
Trevor Knight  Senior Counsel, Legal Services, Elections Canada
Stephanie Kusie  Calgary Midnapore, CPC
Jean-François Morin  Senior Policy Advisor, Privy Council Office
Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Andrew Lauzon
Philippe Méla  Legislative Clerk
Linda Lapointe  Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, Lib.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Ms. Kusie.

11:30 a.m.

Calgary Midnapore, CPC

Stephanie Kusie

I also wanted to state, using the example of the potential new format for the leadership debates, that this is an example, Mr. Cullen, of where we do not always have the assurance, if it is not legislated, that we will have review and input into the democratic processes. This provides specifically for that.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

We'll go to a vote on a potential new clause 366.1, which would be created by CPC-184.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

On clause 367, there was an amendment, CPC-185, but this lost consequential to CPC-171.

(Clause 367 agreed to on division)

(Clauses 368 and 369 agreed to)

There is a potential new clause 369.1, proposed by amendment CPC-186, which Stephanie will now introduce for us.

11:30 a.m.

Calgary Midnapore, CPC

Stephanie Kusie

This amendment is in regard to the register of future electors, so that they mirror the record retention protection and evidence rules, which pertain to the register of electors. It follows common sense that the rules regarding the register of electors should, at the very least, be the standard for the future electors. As I indicated earlier, generally speaking, we'd like to see greater enforcement where there are minors concerned, but for the sake of this amendment, it is simply with regard to mirroring the retention, protection and evidence rules, which pertain to the register of electors.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Thank you for this excellent suggestion.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Oh, we got there quickly.

11:30 a.m.

Calgary Midnapore, CPC

Stephanie Kusie

Hold it here for a minute. This feels so good.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Mr. Cullen is still undecided.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

I'm going to go on division, Chair.

11:35 a.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

That's just a joke.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(On clause 370)

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

There is a proposed amendment CPC-187.

Go ahead, Stephanie.

11:35 a.m.

Calgary Midnapore, CPC

Stephanie Kusie

This maintains protection for bingo sheets from becoming public documents. In the past few days, we've heard a lot of discussion, with regard to privacy concerns, so we feel that this fits into the protection of those concerns and as I said, it just protects the bingo sheets from becoming public documents.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Is there any comment from the government or maybe comment from officials, if the government has no thoughts?

11:35 a.m.

LCdr Jean-François Morin

First of all, I have a very technical comment. While the English version of the amendment seems to afford more protection to the bingo sheets, the French version seems to be doing the opposite, so there is a....

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Is there a problem?

11:35 a.m.

LCdr Jean-François Morin

Yes.

Second, although the previous amendments removed the bingo sheets from the definition of election documents, without the list of electors that was used on polling days, bingo sheets are useless. Bingo sheets are just a bunch of numbers circled on a piece of paper and without the associated documents, they provide absolutely no information.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Maybe I'll just find out how this is going to go.

I know it would need to be amended, if it was passed, to put the French and the English together, but it doesn't look like it has good potential, so let's vote on it and see.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 370 agreed to on division)

(On clause 371)

On clause 371, there is one amendment. It is Liberal-61, which will be proposed by Mr. de Burgh Graham.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Bingo sheets....

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

This is related to bingo sheets again. I'm still waiting for somebody to shout “Bingo”, and there you go, problem solved.

The amendment will provide for two distributions of the bingo sheets to occur: one by the returning officer after polling day, and the second essentially by the CEO after the election. This is tied into what we discussed yesterday.

The second distribution would take the form of a final statement of electors who voted, prepared by Elections Canada and distributed to candidates and interested parties in electronic form within six months of the election. This is related to what we discussed.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Do the officials have any comments?

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Specifically, given the passage of this bill, is Elections Canada able to do this for 2019?

11:35 a.m.

Senior Counsel, Legal Services, Elections Canada

Trevor Knight

If it didn't, the law will definitely ask us to do it. I can assure you of that.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

The commissioner will get them.

11:35 a.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!