Evidence of meeting #11 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could you table with the committee what protections were used in the Toronto by-elections, please?
Liberal
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could you table the cost for that, please?
Did you have to increase or decrease the number of polling stations, advance polls and polls?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There was a significant decrease because of the lack of available areas. We had larger polls, but fewer polling locations. It was very difficult to find polling locations.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you for that information.
Did you increase or decrease the number of people you hired?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I believe there was a decrease because of the number of polling stations. There was additional staff in the polling stations for health and safety, but we reduced the single poll worker number for distancing reasons. It's a mixed answer.
Liberal
Liberal
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We had a voluntary contact tracing protocol in place.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could you table the volunteer contact tracing protocol in place, please?
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you so much.
Was there contact tracing by the City of Toronto at the time while the two elections were held?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I believe there was not, but I will verify that.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you so much.
Do you think that during an election, should there be one during a pandemic, it will require more polling stations in order to increase physical distancing?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It will require either more or larger polling stations so that the desks within the stations and the people within those areas have sufficient space. It can be a mix of the two.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you, Monsieur Perrault.
Next we have Mr. Lukiwski, for five minutes.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK
Thank you very much, Chair.
Good afternoon, once again, Mr. Perrault.
Mr. Perrault, you've mentioned on a couple of occasions that your first priority in a minority situation was to prepare for a snap election. I would assume that you are fully prepared, if there were to be a snap election, even if it were called tomorrow. Is that correct?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
What I have said is that we are prepared to do an election if it were called tomorrow. We were prepared earlier in the fall.
The extent of the services available will vary as we move forward. We can improve and adapt what we have in place to deal with a pandemic, but certainly all the basic elements of election delivery would be there.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK
Thank you.
Of course, there is no guarantee, even if we were in a majority situation, that the government wouldn't call an election before the fixed election date. I would assume that you would have to be fully prepared for an election, or even by-elections as we've seen, at any time. Is that correct?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I would want to nuance that. We always have to look at the situation.
If we were 100% prepared at all times, there would be considerable cost. For example, right now we have 50% of our elections staff. These are the additional workforce we bring in during the elections. We staff up to 50%, not 100%.
Normally in a fixed date election, we don't deploy the technology in the regions until late in the cycle or if there are signs that there may be an election. There are ongoing, monthly fees that are quite significant, in terms of maintaining, for example, that software and hardware deployed regionally.
There are all kinds of decision points we make on an election cycle, minority or majority, and we manage the risk in this way. We are not 100% prepared at all times, certainly not during a majority.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK
It must give you some form of comfort, Mr. Perrault, that when Minister LeBlanc was before our committee just two days ago, he clearly stated and committed that this government would not be calling a snap election. Your predictions, or at least your observations and ruminations, that there may be a spring election should probably be somewhat allayed right now.
I personally don't think we're going into an election any time soon but that's only my opinion. I would ask you this because I'm just, frankly, curious. We all hope that there's going to be a vaccine that can be found quickly, and we hope that there can be a vaccine that is proven to be effective and can be distributed across Canada so that every Canadian who wishes to be vaccinated can be vaccinated.
If that were the case, if every Canadian hypothetically was vaccinated, what impact would that have, in your opinion, on your office and your budget? For example, there would be obviously fewer health protocols required, but would it have an impact, in your opinion, on things like mail-in ballots? If everyone was vaccinated, would there be as many mail-in ballots? What would your opinion be as to the voter turnout if a vaccine was completely distributed across Canada? Can you give me just a couple of observations on the future as you see it?