Good morning. Welcome to the 141st meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
Welcome, Nathan.
Our first order of business today is the consideration of the votes under the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in the supplementary estimates (B), 2018-19, and the interim estimates 2019-20.
We are happy to be joined today by Stéphane Perrault, Canada's Chief Electoral Officer. He is accompanied by officials from Elections Canada: Michel Roussel, deputy chief electoral officer, electoral events and innovation; and Hughes St-Pierre, deputy chief electoral officer, internal services.
Thank you all for being here.
Before you make your opening statement, I just want to explain in layman's English what we're doing.
There are two estimates. The second one is the interim estimates for the first part of next year, up to June 23, so they have money to operate while the budget is being approved. The other estimate is the supplementary estimates for the end of this year. If they're going to spend more, then it has to be approved. They're actually spending less, but because there are the two votes, the one that we have say over and then the statutory one.... In the one we have say over, they're actually spending more in this last period of the year. In the one that's statutory, they're actually spending less. In fact, it's even less, so the total is minus. That's why we're approving this, because we have to approve the part that we have a say over.
I think there's something small here that's maybe a bit misleading in the draft you got from the Library of Parliament. It says, “The Chief Electoral Officer is authorized to enter into commitments not exceeding $39,217,905.” That's for the whole year. They're not authorized for that until we approve the budget, but that would be the projection, roughly, for the year.
I'll now turn it over to you, Monsieur Perrault. It's great to have you back here again.