Evidence of meeting #8 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was election.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
I have a general question on the possibility for a voter to vote without a piece of identification if someone vouches for them.
Do you have any statistics on that? Our wallets are getting thicker every year, and we have more and more pieces of identification. Do you have any statistics that would help establish a trend in terms of the number of people who use that method to establish their identity?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We will carry out an analysis on votes where vouching is used. I am not sure it will be ready for the next report because we are conducting several analyses on bags. Each bag must be opened and it must be checked how things went. So it is a very time consuming process.
We will have data. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has election observers, conducted an external audit. We asked them to provide a bit more information on the use of certain pieces of identification, including the voter information card, which, at the last election, was allowed if the person provided another piece of identification. We will have a bit more information on those issues.
As for the question on vouching, I will have that information, but I cannot guarantee that it will be included in the next report.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
In my riding, hiring people for Elections Canada was really a significant challenge. I'm just wondering if in any of your reports you'll be looking at the difference between hiring in rural and remote communities as opposed to urban ones. One of the challenges was that some of our communities are smaller and have multiple challenges. There were fewer people to hire. I'm just wondering if you will be looking at that.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We're going to break down the numbers. We're going to slice it and dice it and see by age group and look at all possible correlations. Remote communities may well be one of those. Perhaps, Michel, you have something to add to this.
We will be looking at this very closely because that was and will continue to be a major challenge.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you.
This ends the time that we had slotted.
Thank you, Mr. Perrault, Mr. Roussel and Mr. St-Pierre. It was lovely to have all of you before us. I know that we will meet again not too long from now. There will be regular occurrences where you will be able to advise us on the work that you are undertaking.
Thank you so much.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
We will move in camera for the next part of the meeting.
We will suspend while we are going in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]