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.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
November 19th, 2020 / 11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Perrault, thank you for being here again.
Can you clarify for me the comment that you made to Mr. Blaikie that these estimates were prepared prior to our previous election. Would that have been in Q1 or Q2 of 2019?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
If I'm not mistaken—and Mr. Limoges knows this, of course, and he'll answer—I think they were prepared in either late September or early October. That's when they were submitted to Treasury Board.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Have they been updated?
I'm a small business owner. I also ran budgets for a federally operated operation. I know that situations change, such as a global pandemic. Have they been adjusted accordingly, or is this a case where you are going to report back to the committee in Q2 or Q3 of next year and say, “We were under-budgeted by hundreds of millions of dollars?”
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It depends largely on the events. I'm reporting today, for example, on how much in addition we've incurred so far, depending on whether there is an election or not. Certainly when we report on our results we will be reporting on how much at the end we will have spent, and there are always some variations between the plans and the—
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Especially during a pandemic and especially during a minority situation. For example, the by-elections are never budgeted, and we just had two by-elections.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
I really appreciate that comment. It's still shocking for me, a little bit.
Mr. Perrault, you indicated during your last testimony that you had not consulted with the Prime Minister on how a snap pandemic election would be conducted. We are seeing increased rates right across our country, especially in my province of British Columbia. Yukon just announced severe measures. I think we're going into another lockdown. In Saskatchewan the rates are going through the roof.
Have you had any chance to consult with the Prime Minister on that?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
No, and we would not normally do that. The calling of an election is the prerogative of governments. I have 15 years at elections. We've never had any discussions about the likelihood of an election.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I spoke with her personally in September, but there are ongoing discussions, of course, with her team and members of my staff.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Has she outlined any specific concerns in terms of conducting a federal pandemic election?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Not that I'm aware of.... The nature of the advice they provide is advice on how to deliver an election and what measures to put in place, not whether to deliver an election.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Okay.
The minister appeared before committee for two hours on Tuesday and was very generous with his time, but he also spoke of concerns regarding foreign interference. We are seeing lots of talk of that south of the border.
The job of this committee, and I see it as this study, is to provide assurances to the Canadian public that it is safe, it is secure and our democratic institutions are going to be intact.
Have you budgeted any money in terms of any foreign interference, and in what terms could there be foreign interference in a weakened state during a global pandemic, in your thoughts?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We established in the lead-up to the last election a working group, well in advance of the last election, because of the emergence of foreign interference as a phenomenon and the use of social media. We have a working group that involves government security partners, including the Communications Security Establishment of Canada and the centre for cybersecurity.
We have done in the past and we will continue to do, with plans to do so this fall, tabletop exercises to look at different scenarios. The only difference this time is that we've included the Public Health Agency because of potential disinformation about health.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Great.
Mr. Perrault, I want to talk about mail-in ballots during a pandemic election situation. As you stated before and as you stated this time, it's five million mail-in votes, almost a hundred times more than the last election. What are we doing, and how much money has been spent, to prepare for that? Are you confident that Canada Post will be ramped up to be able to handle that capacity?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We'll have to follow up on the details of the amounts. As I indicated earlier, most of the work will be done locally, so the planning does not necessarily involve major spending. There is $10 million earmarked for the postage itself and some additional machinery, but the plan is on the logistics and how to simplify the process, especially for—
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Okay. I have one last question. It's with regard to a suggestion made to me by somebody who's probably listening in. There's been a lot of talk in the election south of the border: Did my vote count? How can I be assured with the mail-in counts?
I'm wondering if there's something we could institute, maybe as a recommendation, where those who are putting in mail-in ballots can go online and see, just like with tracking a parcel, that, hey, the vote counted. It's registered.
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Unfortunately, we can't do that. We are looking at options to inform voters that their kits have been sent to them. We are working with Canada Post. Their parcel service has a tracking option, but not for general mail delivery.
There are ways that this can be done. It's something we could explore in the future, but if we're looking at a spring election, this is not something that we could implement in the short term. What we will be doing is informing voters, as clearly as possible, on the timelines and the importance of submitting their ballot kits on time. Again—
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
On a point of order, Madam Chair, does the witness know that we're having a spring election?
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
The role of Elections Canada is to be prepared at any given moment, and they do a fine job at that.
We will move on to Mr. Alghabra for five minutes, please.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Welcome back, Mr. Perrault.
Let me congratulate you and Elections Canada on being retweeted by President Trump and getting the most viral tweet ever for Elections Canada.