Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 24th, 2018

[Stéphane Perrault]

We have some contact with the U.S., but our environment is quite different from theirs. They have a very unique decentralized structure, whereby, if I'm not mistaken, 60% of the districts or jurisdictions that serve electors in the U.S. are less than 5,000. It's a constellation of micro-jurisdictions with, in some cases, very varying means to deal with threats. They also need to rely on technology a lot more than we do in terms of voting because of the nature of their system. They often have referendums and so forth. They typically don't vote on paper the way we do. Their challenges are quite unique in that regard.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

In terms of your preparation for the 2015 election and the preparation now for the 2019 election, what differences are there, if any? How have the priorities changed from that election to this election?

[Stéphane Perrault]

That's a good question. There are a number of changes. One that we've spoken about quite a bit is the cyber-threat. Before the last election, our concern on security included cyber but was nowhere near the level that we have right now. On that front there's been a lot of work done to improve our cybersecurity. We have made great improvements. That's an important change.

We've also made a number of efforts to modernize the voting services. We saw in the last election a dramatic increase of 70% of the vote at advance polls. There was a migration of the voters from polling day to advance polls. That had, as you will remember, an impact on the lineups and the services. We've been working hard to improve that. We're doing different things. Some of them do not require legislative changes. We talked about the electronic poll books to accelerate and streamline the process at the polls. We also streamlined the procedures, even the paper procedures. In polls where there will be no technology, the paper processes will be streamlined. We've also made some recommendations, which we hope we'll see at some point—for example, to increase the number of hours at advance polls.

You always have to adjust your electoral services to the changing reality of Canadians. If you only plan for the last election, then you will run into some difficulties. We're looking at making a number of improvements this time around.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Now we'll go back to Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

I guess I'll start with this: in Treasury Board Vote 40, there was a $570,000 reduction for Elections Canada, which was entitled “Rebalancing Elections Canada's Expenditures”. I'm wondering if you were consulted on that rebalancing or cut in funding and what impact it is going to have on your abilities in the next election. Obviously, there will have to be some changes to deal with that cut in funding.

[Stéphane Perrault]

That is a good question. The numbers can be misleading. It's a change that was made at my request. What we are doing is trying to transfer some of the spending we do right now on the statutory draw, by which we buy services from contractors, for example, IT, terms and casuals, and reduce that amount while increasing the amount on our voted appropriation, the annual appropriation, for which we have the vote today. This is money that is exclusively for indeterminate positions. When we do that, we do two things. We stabilize our workforce. That's particularly important in IT where we do want to have the flexibility of some consultants, but you need a core capacity. Similarly, in other areas as well, you want to reduce the number of terms up to a certain degree and make those positions permanent.

When we do that, we see that full-time public servants are cheaper to hire than consultants, much cheaper. Over five years, you'll see an increase of some $51 million in our annual appropriations and a reduction of $61 million in our statutory spending. This gives us a $10-million saving while at the same time stabilizing our workforce. That's a request that I made, and I was very happy to see it in the budget.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Great, thank you for that clarification.

You mentioned in your opening remarks the migration of a number of your systems and databases—that's maybe tied together, even—over to the new data centre you are currently building.

[Stéphane Perrault]

Correct.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

You said this was necessary in order to have the flexibility and security to deliver the election, and you specifically said “in the current environment”. I wonder if you can give us some clarification or specificity as to what that means. What's the current environment? What's the difference? What's changed that you see as a difference with the current environment?

[Stéphane Perrault]

There are two things, but mostly one. First of all, we currently have a data centre. The contract for that data centre has expired, so it had to be renewed to begin with. As we move forward to a new data centre, we wanted the greater flexibility of expanding the service, so that especially on voting day when there's a peak demand, we'll have much greater flexibility to deal with that and not risk having the system freeze during the key period of the election. That is one thing.

The most important point about the changing environment is the cybersecure environment. This new data centre is much more secure than the one we currently have, and the security components will take into account the information received from the Communications Security Establishment. That's why it is critical—

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Sorry to interrupt, but when you talk about security, are you talking about concerns with the kinds of reports we've heard or the threats we think might be out there in terms of foreign—

[Stéphane Perrault]

—in terms of penetration of our systems, exactly.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

You mentioned that starting in September you're going to be conducting integrated testing, the full testing, in a way that replicates the activities and transactions of a general election.

Can you give me some sense as to what we're talking about there? What are those activities? What are those transactions that you're going to be testing starting on September 1?

[Stéphane Perrault]

For example, during the course of the election we're using a system called REVISE to record the new additions of voters to the list of electors who registered on advance polls. That's one. That information is loaded locally at the returning office and has to work with the central database. It's the same for the election night results.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

When you talk about that simulation where you're including a process with several electoral districts, and including the interaction between the local offices and the headquarters, which is what you were just referencing there, how is that done? To do that testing, do you have to physically rent space that would look like a returning office in several electoral districts for a different period of time than what's required for the election?

[Stéphane Perrault]

Absolutely. We do rent space, as we would do during an election, for a limited number of offices, of course. We bring in staff and we go through all the standard procedures that they would go through during an election, and test those systems to make sure they perform properly.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate the information.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll go on to Ms. Tassi.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Thank you for being here today and for the testimony that you're providing.

Continuing with Mr. Richards' last question, how do you choose the places where you're going to set up that testing?

[Michel Roussel, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Events and Innovation, Elections Canada]

It would depend on various factors, but we try to find places, electoral districts, that are representative of the country, so the west, the east, urban, and rural. That's how we select those places.

Usually we take about four or five electoral districts that are selected, so representativity is important.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

I see. Okay.

I am interested in the tools that you're preparing for teachers. Part of my background is 20 years in a high school, and I found the biggest stumbling block is that there are so many resources out there, but we're often not aware of the resources available.

What action are you taking to let teachers know that these resources are available—the awareness piece?

[Stéphane Perrault]

We've put together an advisory group of teachers from across Canada. They are actually working with us in the design of the new tools. We want to make sure that the tools reflect their needs. We're currently working to refresh them. Some of the tools we've had were good tools, but they're now outdated. We need to get them up to date and to use more online materials and so forth. Across the country, we're working with the teachers themselves to get some advice on that.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

I think that's fantastic. I think that's the best. You're going to develop the best tool by working with the teachers who are in the classrooms. It's brilliant that you're doing that.

The next step is the awareness piece. Is that same group going to advise as to how to get the information to the schools that these tools are available? Or is that independent of that advisory group?

[Stéphane Perrault]

No. It's fully integrated. It's about the tools and how we roll them out and make them available.