Evidence of meeting #32 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 recommendations.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marc Mayrand  Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

11:45 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

And the last one's administrative.

11:45 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

That makes sense. Okay.

Go ahead, Mr. Graham, please, for seven minutes.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

First, I want to thank you for being here and for the work you have done during your term. We are very proud of it.

In recommendation A2, you suggest using electronic lists that would enable voters to vote at any polling station in a single polling place. Why limit that to polling stations and not make it possible to vote anywhere in the district?

11:50 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

Theoretically, the electronic list that we are proposing would include the electoral list of the entire country, which would be available at every polling station. We are recommending to the committee that we be able to organize voting differently. Instead of doing it at a specific table, it could be done any of the tables in a polling place. In fact, when a voter appeared with her voter information card, a barcode could be scanned and automatically make the connection with the electronic electoral list. As the voter progressed through the process, her name would be struck and she would be registered as having received a ballot or having voted, depending on the stage she had reached.

The advantage of that, apart from book-keeping, would be to accelerate the process. The voter would go to the first free table. This is somewhat comparable to the model of a bank branch. The model we currently have is obsolete. There are not a lot of places today where you are required to wait at a single cash that is half-prepared to receive you.

We therefore recommend, for the moment, that this flexibility be permitted at polling places. We could definitely go further. The experts will be able to inform you further in future discussions. We could definitely allow voters to go to any place in a district, or even in the country, but I believe that raises issues that should be discussed.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Could there be a note on paper, which would be printed as we go along, if only to verify a software error or to serve as proof?

For example, when I went up to the scrutineer and gave him my name, it would be permanently printed.

11:50 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

Printing is always a possibility. I will take this opportunity to emphasize that we are not talking about electronic voting. We keep the paper ballot at this stage.

We could consider another element. As voters' names are struck off and the voters have voted, the information would be available to candidates on a portal. They could consult it to determine exactly who has voted and at what time.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

So there would be no more bingo cards.

11:50 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

There would be no more bingo cards, but rather an electronic system that would be accessible by means of a PIN. Obviously, controls are necessary. It would therefore be possible for candidates to have real-time access to what is going on in the polling places throughout the district.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

You also recommend that there be a list of citizens 16 years of age and over who have a driver's licence.

I am curious. Why are you limiting yourself to a list of citizens 16 years of age and over and not proposing a list of all citizens from birth? You could obtain all birth certificates, and when people reached the required voting age, their names would already be on the list.

11:50 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

We do not have access to that data at this time.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

That is a philosophical question. I am curious.

11:50 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

I will give you some background. Our main suppliers, whether it be the Canada Revenue Agency or the motor vehicle bureaux, have data on young people 16 and 17 years of age who have begun to work or drive. A few years ago, that data was forwarded to us, but at some point somebody checked the privacy rules and told us to drop the practice. We were not authorized to gather that data.

We recommend that we have access to that data and that young people 16 and 17 years of age also the actively entered in the registry. That could be combined with a civic education program in schools. We should ensure that, when they reach voting age, young people are automatically informed of their polling place and receive all the information that is provided during an election.

We think that could considerably improve the services offered to young people.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

In recommendation A31, you suggest that subsidies be paid to official agents rather than to auditors.

11:55 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

I do not think I understood the question.

11:55 a.m.

A voice

What do you think of the mechanism for financial agents?

11:55 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

There is already an expense reimbursement mechanism. There is another mechanism for auditors who receive the subsidy when the audit report is submitted. We would use virtually the same mechanism for official agents. However, that would be subject to a condition: that the report be prepared on time and that it be complete.

We also propose to make the subsidy subject to the condition that the official agent has completed the training offered for his position. On those conditions, he would receive the subsidy, which would vary based on the amount of expenses and revenues during the campaign.

11:55 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

I am going to ask one final question because I have virtually no time left.

What advice would you give your successor?

11:55 a.m.

Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada

Marc Mayrand

I think he will get plenty of advice.

What I've tried to do throughout my term has been to really focus on viewing everything from the perspective of electors.

There are two main considerations: I think the electors have to be at the centre of anything we do, and we need to have the greatest consideration of fairness for all. I think if you keep to those two things, you cannot do too much wrong. With a few other tips, you could do very well.

11:55 a.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Thank you, Mr. Maynard.

11:55 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Thank you, Mr. Graham.

Now we're on to Mr. Reid for five minutes.

11:55 a.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, my apologies to Mr. Christopherson. I can't imagine how as memorable an experience as serving 10 years with him on the committee slipped my mind.

11:55 a.m.

NDP

David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Not in committee, in the House.

11:55 a.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON

Oh, in the House. Okay, fair enough. That's memorable too, actually.

Mr. Mayrand, I wanted to return to something you said in your testimony before the electoral reform committee back in July.

You indicated in your opening statement at that time, “I note that the government has committed to having legislation in May 2017, which I am comfortable with.”

I wanted to ask you what you mean by this. You can see why this is important as the House tries to move forward to deal with the legislation. Do you mean by this that as long as the legislation is completed, no further amendments are possible, which in practice means it's through both the House and the Senate and has royal assent, or at least that it's through the House and it's unlikely to be amended by the Senate, or do you mean something less? We have the broad parameters. We know now it's MMP and not STV.

I'll let you try to respond to that.