Evidence of meeting #12 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.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, you don't. You can proceed, if there's consent, to group them all together, and then indicate that they're on division, if that is the will of the committee, and I could minute it accordingly.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Is there any opposition to that?
No. All right.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$360,043,935
(Vote 1 agreed to on division)
LEADERS' DEBATE COMMISSION
Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$1
(Vote 1 agreed to on division)
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER
Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$48,225,193
(Vote 1 agreed to on division)
PARLIAMENTARY PROTECTIVE SERVICE
Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$83,452,443
(Vote 1 agreed to on division)
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$21,771,121
(Vote 1b agreed to on division)
LEADERS' DEBATE COMMISSION
Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$5,147,844
(Vote 1b agreed to on division)
Thank you. Those are the main estimates and the supplementary estimates. We are done with these.
We will welcome in—
Justin, yes.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, before you move on, generally there's also a motion asking you to report the estimates back to the House. It is a formality, but you can proceed with it very quickly.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
I will report back to the House, then.
Thank you so much for that.
We are going to move to our second panel for today.
Yes?
The Clerk
Madam Chair, sorry, it's the clerk again.
Our witness has not entered the waiting room or meeting yet; we are still waiting on that person.
We're trying to get hold of him so that he can appear. We don't have the witness right now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay. Let's move to some of the committee business we were going to save until the end.
First, just off the bat, I'd like to mention that at Thursday's meeting we're going to have three panels. It's going to be a three-hour meeting. I don't want anyone to be caught off guard—Monsieur Therrien especially—by that.
If you need a replacement for the third hour, then please try to find a replacement now for that hour. We'll be going from 11:00 to 2:00.
Once again I apologize. I know that's going right up against QP, but it's not by my choice that we're doing it this way.
During that meeting on November 26, Thursday's meeting, we're going to have three one-hour panels. We're going to have Professor André Blais and the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. In the second panel we'll have People First Canada and then Canada Without Poverty. Then in the third panel we will have—
Justin, do we have CARP confirmed?
The Clerk
Madam Chair, unfortunately, CARP cancelled yesterday, and so we no longer have them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay, so we no longer have CARP, but we have the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons for the third panel. That is our meeting for Thursday.
We had a subcommittee meeting on November 19. The subcommittee report was circulated to everybody. If you do have that before you, you were given an updated calendar with the report as well. The report has seven different decisions that were made. I'm just wondering if everyone has had enough time to look at that subcommittee report, or if they need a minute right now.
Then I just need your consent to move ahead with the letters I have to write and some of the scheduling that has to be done accordingly.
We will have a meeting on prorogation. I think that's of importance to mention.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay.
There has been a motion to accept the report of the subcommittee.
Is everyone okay with what is in the report?
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Could we have a minute, Madam Chair, as you suggested, just to have a quick look over it?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay.
I think the main things to note are that we need to have our recommendations in by December 1 at 5 p.m. That's the important deadline to know. We will come to that December 1 meeting. We have a meeting earlier that day in our regular 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. time slot. All of you should bring your recommendations to that meeting and hopefully we can hash them out a little bit during the meeting, and then by 5 p.m. later that day they can be submitted to the analysts so that both of them can start incorporating them into our draft report.
The other thing of notice is that we are going to ask Dr. Tam to submit a brief instead of making an appearance before the committee.
We're also asking for briefs from the health officers of the other provinces whom we've already met with just to see if there is any further information they'd like to submit to this committee, and also in particular asking whether their elections contributed to any of the cases arising in those provinces currently.
The meeting on prorogation will be on December 10. I would request that all parties submit one constitutional expert or academic of their choice for that committee so that we can schedule that accordingly.
It looks like everyone has now maybe had enough time to read through the subcommittee report have an understanding of what is in it.
There has been a motion to pass this subcommittee report.
Is everyone in favour?
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
On item two, I just wonder if we might also be able to add the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, because I understand that the FCM had already declined—although we might be getting someone from them now, due to the good effort of Mr. Doherty. I thought that the Saskatchewan organization might offer a good perspective of what some of the challenges might have been for rural communities as well during a pandemic election.
Liberal
The Clerk
Yes, Madam Chair. I can amend the report to include the Saskatchewan group as well. And since we're on the point, I would also let you know that I've heard back a second time from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and they are still not available to appear. So what we would have remaining is an outstanding invitation to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, and I can also get in touch with the Saskatchewan group.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
All right, there has been what I would take as a friendly amendment made to the subcommittee report. Is there any opposition to this report?
Okay, the report passes and we will plan accordingly. Thank you to all the subcommittee members for taking your time that day to help us plan our important next steps.
Now to our next witness, Mr. LeClair. I'd like to welcome you to our committee. Thank you so much for appearing before us as a witnesses. I apologize for our handling some internal committee business at this time, but we saw a little bit of a gap and took that opportunity.
We welcome you. This panel will only have you, I believe. The other witness who was scheduled to appear is unable to do so today, so thank you for being the voice of the Métis today here at this committee.
We look forward to hearing your opening remarks for five minutes, and thank you for sending those in advance as well.
Marc LeClair Senior Advisor, Métis National Council
Thank you for having me.
President Chartier and president Chartrand were unable to make it, but they asked me to appear.
I've been the lead negotiator for the Métis nation for just over 30 years, hence, I've participated in a lot of work that we've done with Elections Canada over the years. I was at one time the main researcher and clerk for the Lortie commission that studied elections and party financing and came up with a plan to increase aboriginal representation in Parliament. That's in Mr. Lortie's recommendations in the report. I have a bit of knowledge about the electoral system. I worked with former Chief Electoral Officer Kingsley and put an end to the incentivized voting bingo blotters. That's how they tried to encourage people to participate in the past.
This year marks the 150th year of the entry of Manitoba into Confederation. The Métis people negotiated that, and the banners are all over the House of Commons.
Who are the Métis nation? The Métis nation is primarily a western Canadian phenomenon. We emerged during the fur trade; we number about 400,000. Our traditional territory includes the Prairies, northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Ontario. Now we have province-wide governing members in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. We are a very democratic nation; we have been practising one person, one ballot for over 50 years. Our provincial leaders are elected by province-wide ballot. We've been a strong advocate of increased Métis participation in the electoral process and other indigenous participation.
We understand that we have similar challenges to first nations in that many of our people live in poverty; we have a higher incidence of homelessness and mental health issues, which are not being addressed. Because a big part of our population is in the hinterland, we have all of those challenges of transportation. We have not been that successful in employment with the electoral system; we're not as employed there as our population warrants. We have voter registration challenges, although those have been addressed by Elections Canada recognizing our membership cards, which was a big step forward.
The biggest challenges we have are related to communications, and it's become all the more difficult in this pandemic, because the indigenous newspapers that rely on advertising for their money have been hit hard. The rural papers aren't being published as often, which that creates real challenges for Métis to understand what the parties are offering them.
To be succinct, and I think you've heard this before, we're recommending extending the voting period, perhaps over a weekend. That would provide more social distancing, greater access to voting stations—and the key issue is where those voting stations are. This would open up the schools, for example. We need to ensure that returning officers have the flexibility they need to make sure that everybody's safe, particularly in the long-term care facilities where we have our people. We think there's a need for enhanced mail-in ballot options, because some of our older people have taken this pandemic very seriously and are not moving around at all. In fact, we're telling them not to move around, so we really need to expand that voting method.
One of the things I don't believe this new Chief Electoral Officer has done is meet with our governing members, our province-wide members. We'll have locals in each of our provinces of about 80 different communities where there are significant numbers of Métis, so our governing members at the provincial level are best placed to advise the returning officers where these election boxes should be placed so that we can maximize our participation.
The other challenge we have is that we're in areas where there isn't broadband. Overall, though, the biggest challenge is understanding what the parties are proposing to improve the quality of life for Métis people. That's critical.
I'll give you one example. I'm not picking on any party or anything like that. The new Leader of the Opposition came out with a platform on indigenous things, which is good, but in the platform, he said, well, we're going to continue this national process with first nations and Inuit. You know, we've had a process with the government, structured by a court, that has resulted in $2 billion spending over 10 years. It's a very good process. Everybody has commended the process. It has worked real well. But either the opposition leader doesn't like the process or he failed to communicate. For us as a people, that's a pretty big issue. Now, with the more limited communications, we really need to find a way to address that in the pandemic election. That's really a challenge for everybody, I think.
I'll end it there.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Mr. LeClair, thank you so much for representing the Métis National Council.
We will now move to formal rounds of questions. The first round will be six minutes.
We will begin with Mr. Doherty.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to our guest.
Mr. LeClair, could you tell me what the population demographics are of the 400,000 Métis?