Okay. Then these words will seem familiar to you.
She expressed a very valid and I think businesslike concern with the time required to implement some of the recommendations that this committee was likely to make to the proposals contained in the report of the Chief Electoral Officer, which he submits, as required by statute, following every general election, including following the 42nd general election. He produced this report.
We were to produce a response to it. We were in the process of doing that, step by step and bit by bit, working on the easy stuff first, the stuff where we have a consensus. We may not have a consensus on everything, but of course we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
At any rate, at that meeting she said that she had to get on with introducing legislation in the autumn. Therefore, she made the following comments in her opening remarks:
The road to the 2019 election is getting ever shorter. I am committed, as I know all members of this committee are, to improving our electoral system before the next election to the benefit of all Canadians. To accomplish this goal, Canadians need us to work together. I hope to continue to receive your valuable input to inform the direction of improving our electoral process to make it accessible, efficient, and equitable for voters.
Elections Canada needs sufficient time to implement any changes made to the Canada Elections Act before the next election and would like to be election-ready well in advance of an expected writ. The more time Elections Canada has to prepare, the better.
We must also take into consideration that other legislative changes may be necessary to implement your recommendations.
The development and preparation of this bill, and the important discussions and debates in the House of Commons and Senate, shouldn't be rushed.
To give Elections Canada the time it needs, as well as to give parliamentarians the time they need, my hope would be to introduce legislation before the end of this year that would build on your hard work with respect to the Chief Electoral Officer's recommendations. It is our responsibility to take the time to get this right. It is also our responsibility to get it done. It's what Canadians expect.
Now here's the key part:
If the House could have your next report before the House rises for the summer, preferably by May 19, I think we would be well positioned to advance some significant reforms that would improve the electoral process for Canadians.
That's where she wants to go. I literally have no idea how we would achieve that, given that our days would be consumed by that, and to hold these very extensive hearings at the very same time. Her deadline is almost identical with the de facto deadline this committee faces.
Later on she made the observation that, after all, there were over 130 recommendations, which was, as she put it, “quite the task”.
Mr. Chair, having gone through all of that, and as we have just 10 minutes left here, I did have some other things I wanted to talk to with regard to the main motion that Mr. Simms has put forward. But I think perhaps it might make better sense at this point to move to the method I have suggested for improving upon it—let's put it that way.
Mr. Chair, I move that the motion presently before us be amended by:
(a) deleting “2017; and”, at the end of paragraph (d), and substituting “2017;”;
(b) adding, immediately after paragraph (d), “(e) notwithstanding paragraph (d), but consistent with the Committee's past practices, as discussed at its December 8, 2016 meeting, the Committee shall not report any recommendation for an amended Standing Order, provisional Standing Order, new Standing Order, Sessional Order, Special Order, or to create or to revise a usual practice of the House, which is not unanimously agreed to by the Committee; and” and
(c) relettering paragraph (e) as paragraph (f).
I regret, Mr. Chair, that I have only an English translation of this. I don't have this in both languages, although we are, I'm told, working on getting one done, so I can't distribute it to all members. I apologize for that, in fact.