Evidence of meeting #152 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 commissioner.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Mr. Chair, if I could just correct the number I gave, the reimbursement of $76 million is the overall number, including candidates, and $39 million is for parties.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay.
The clerk and the researcher have pointed out to me that the commissioner's estimates are actually not before this committee. They're before the justice committee, so this motion would be out of order.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
One moment, Chair, please. I'd like to take a pause.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Mr. Chair, it sounds like you've made a ruling that this is out of order. Is that correct?
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
In that case, I would like to introduce the following motion: that the Commissioner of Canada Elections appear before the procedure and House affairs committee to discuss the illegal contributions made by SNC-Lavalin to the Liberal Party of Canada and his decision to issue a deferred prosecution agreement or whatever it's called.
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
You have to give notice because it's not on the topic we're discussing.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Ah. So tell me, what's happening next Tuesday?
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
No, no, this is relevant, because this will be back next Tuesday.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We haven't determined anything yet. It was basically committee business.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Okay. Well, this will be our first item of committee business, then, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, Stephanie. I think you have about two minutes left. Then we'll switch our panel of witnesses.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Sure. Thank you, Chair.
Monsieur Perrault, you mentioned on Tuesday at the Senate finance committee that you estimate the number of Canadians voting will go from 11,000 electors to 30,000...due to the new provisions set out in Bill C-76. How did you come up with these estimates, please?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There were two methods. The main method was looking at the increase in demand after the first Frank ruling, if I'm not mistaken, at the trial that struck down the five-year rule. We then saw an increase for several months, during a number of months, when the five-year rule was removed, so some projections were made based on that.
We also know that in the United States, Americans abroad can vote without restrictions as to the years they've been away, so we looked at the proportion of Americans abroad who vote as compared to the proportions of Americans in the States who vote. You have to take into account that many Americans abroad are in the military, and that's a bit of a skewing of the numbers, so it's not an exact science.
Our projections of 30,000 remain. I would call that a class D estimate, in the sense that it's not an exact science, but we maintain our position on those numbers at this point in time.