Evidence of meeting #13 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.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thanks.
Ms. Renaud, what about you? Are there any other options other than mail-in ballots and physical polling locations that you would like us to consider?
12:25 p.m.
National Coordinator, Canada Without Poverty
I know Elections Canada has done research in exploring online voting, but we're unfortunately not quite ready to make it secure and accessible.
I think what I've gathered from my engagement with anti-poverty organizations across Canada is that mail-in voting is something that we see as breaking a lot of barriers to voting. Also, in addition to having an official election day, we could expand the window for advance voting for people who know ahead of time that they won't be able to vote on election day. Maybe they haven't gotten around to requesting a mail-in ballot but know they can access an advance polling day. Sometimes these are short, 48-hour windows, but if possible, if we could expand them, that would also be a great help.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thank you for that. That's great.
Maybe I can dive a little deeper on the mail-in ballot process. We've heard from some other stakeholders that it could be streamlined or improved in terms of user friendliness, and the usability of it can be challenging at times, I think for multiple reasons.
Mr. Earle and Ms. Fletcher, would you agree with that? Do you have any specific recommendations on streamlining the process of mail-in ballots? I know you spoke to pictures on ballots, but is there anything else that you could recommend?
12:25 p.m.
President, People First of Canada
I want to be perfectly clear, when I went into the elections to vote, one of the biggest struggles that I had was to know the candidate who was running, because I had to write it in. I actually put the name in slightly wrong and was really concerned that it was disqualified.
I want to caution that when we do mail-in ballots, there should be some kind of thing about who is running—not necessarily pictures, as much as we like them, but something that is easy for voters. I can tell you right now that, as a voter, I was almost turned off voting because I got really nervous that I might have messed up. Having a list of those candidates is extremely important.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
12:25 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
To add to what Kory said, when Kory went to do the pre-vote, he had to write in the name of the person running. It's important for you to remember that a very large part of the people we are representing today do not have access to technology. It's not as easy as jumping on a computer and seeing who is running in one's riding. That's not a reality for them.
I agree with what Kory is saying. I don't necessarily see it as the job of Elections Canada or of the MPs to make sure everybody in a riding knows who is running, but I would reinforce what Kory is saying that it's really important on the mail-in vote that people know who is running in their riding.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Renaud, do you have anything to add to streamlining the mail-in process? It sounds like that is the option that is going to remove the most barriers for the people that your two organizations represent.
Can you make any recommendations on how to improve that?
12:25 p.m.
National Coordinator, Canada Without Poverty
From what I understand, as it stands currently, people have to request to cast their ballot by mail. I'm not too sure what the logistics around this are. I'm sure there are a lot of administrative deliverables that I'm not taking into consideration as I'm not working with Elections Canada. Similar to automatic voter registration, perhaps everyone would automatically be eligible to vote by mail. If they choose to cast their ballots by mail, they can do so or they could just destroy that ballot and decide to vote in person. I think that could be an option. I understand there would be some logistical issues around that.
I see Ruby with her hand up.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you for that point.
We have to go to Mr. Therrien for six minutes, please.
12:25 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to start with Mr. Earle and Ms. Fletcher.
I'm very pleased to hear from you. Welcome to the committee.
The first thing I must say to you is: well done and congratulations for the work that you do. My second daughter has an intellectual disability, so from your comments, I fully understand that you are standing up for my daughter. I am very grateful to you for that.
Approximately how many people do you represent in Canada?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
Kory, do you want me to answer that one?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
Our membership fluctuates. We are currently in every province and territory with the exception of Nunavut. Our Nunavut chapter in Rankin Inlet has closed. We hope that is temporary. We represent between 3,000 and 4,000 Canadians with intellectual disabilities who are members of our organization.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Okay.
As you know, these people's health is often more fragile, so I imagine that the pandemic is worrisome for you.
Do you know their usual turnout, and what the prognosis is in a pandemic like this? I think it will be very problematic to get these people to vote during a health crisis like this.
Could you comment on that?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
That's a really good question. I don't have a statistic on how many people with intellectual disabilities across Canada are voting, but that's certainly something that we could look into.
We are very concerned about people with compromised health. You are correct that many people who have intellectual disabilities often have other health issues as well.
One of the things Kory was talking about in our opening remarks was around supporting people to access their fundamental right to vote. A pandemic is very challenging and we're hopeful that they are creative with different ways to come into people's homes, into group homes and into congregate settings where people live and have something in place to allow people to exercise their right to vote.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
So you're proposing to have two 16-hour voting days. The idea of having them on Friday and Saturday is very interesting, and Ms. Renaud also mentioned it. I think it's a very good idea to set one voting day on a weekday and another on a weekend.
I used to be an MNA in Quebec City and we had made arrangements to have pictures of the candidates. It's funny to hear you say that maybe the members prevented it. We were quite happy to help people vote with pictures of the candidates. I had even demanded, in 1998—I am very old—to have pictures of the candidates in the polling stations so that people could recognize us.
I find it astonishing that this is still not being done at the federal level. I think we should push for that. I'm not sure whether you agree.
12:30 p.m.
President, People First of Canada
Absolutely. I think photos on ballots are extremely important. We have met with some MPs to discuss this. As Shelley mentioned earlier, the whole thing about pictures really threw some of them off that option.
Nevertheless, we are going to continue to advocate for this, because we believe it is the right thing to do. If we truly want a Canada where every Canadian votes, then we need to make it accessible. The people who are really marginalized are those with an intellectual disability and developmental disability. They are at the lowest rate below poverty than any others, and are facing this struggle today.
We'll continue to advocate for that with all MPs to get party support. Quite frankly, the majority of Canadians would support that. It's not just for people with intellectual disabilities. New Canadians would also benefit.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Rest assured that you have an ally. You can be sure that I am entirely on your side.
Once again, congratulations for the work that you are doing. I am very pleased to talk to you.
I will now turn to Ms. Renaud.
Your suggestion to extend the advance voting periods is very interesting.
That said, you would like to have three eight-hour days instead of two longer days. Did I understand you correctly?
12:35 p.m.
National Coordinator, Canada Without Poverty
Initially, just from talking with people, we thought why not extend the weekend voting period to three days, to include a weekday?
That being said, when Shelley mentioned having a voting day, Friday and Saturday, that was actually an excellent point, especially in bringing up the fact that Sunday is a day of worship for many people. Having two eight-hour periods, one on Friday and one on Saturday, would also work in extending voting accessibility and reducing barriers. Originally, we said three days, but Shelley's suggestion is also quite good.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you. That's all the time we have.
We will go to Mr. Blaikie for six minutes.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
One of the things we heard in our previous panel is that the best way to mitigate the potential challenges to voting in an election during a pandemic would be for parliamentarians to work together to collaborate in order to avoid an election.
Do our witnesses share the view of the witness in our previous panel who expressed that point of view, or do they disagree?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
Mr. Blaikie, could I ask you to rephrase that question in plain language, so that we could better answer you?
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
We all recognize that having an election during a pandemic poses a lot of challenges to many different Canadians in order to be able to vote. We've heard from some witnesses that the best thing to do would be to have people like me and the MPs at this table find a way to work together as a Parliament, so that we don't have an election, because the fixed election date in Canada doesn't foresee an election until 2023.
We heard from a witness that we could avoid some of these problems if parliamentarians could find a way to work together, and extend the Parliament past the pandemic, provided that it doesn't go on for many years.
Would you agree or disagree with that recommendation?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, People First of Canada
Thank you for clarifying that.
Kory, do you want to comment on that?
12:35 p.m.
President, People First of Canada
Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Blaikie.
We're in the midst of a pandemic right now. We're in the midst of a COVID crisis in this country. The last place that people want to head to right now is the polls. For people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, we must get the election process right—and we're not there yet—to make sure that people are ready during a pandemic.
I work out of long-term care. People are dying right now, and the last thing that's on people's minds right now is an election. As an organization, we have a job to work with all members regardless of what side they're on to push for the inclusion of all Canadians. We'll continue to do that whether there's an election today or next year.