Evidence of meeting #15 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 elections.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
I think it's worth exploring. There are a lot of case studies to draw on and lots of research available to see whether that is worth doing.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Gunn, did you want to chime in there? I think you're trying to raise your hand.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
I'm sorry about that. Maybe you'll throw me in a couple seconds.
What I wanted to comment on, because I'm watching the time fly by—and I'm just going to put it out there, because I don't know if I'll be given the time following this—is that the recommendations of the CEO were framed around a lot of the weekend voting and on how we could better access poll workers.
One of the things that I wanted to emphasize and even offer to you as a potential suggestion within your interim report is the ability for a group like CIVIX and Student Vote to potentially capture the interest of 16- and 17-year-olds across the country to assist in weekend voting. We have access to literally hundreds of thousands of students, and we've never been empowered to do so—
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
You can do that. I remember that as a 16-year-old I worked in a returning office—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
That's all the time we have. I'm sorry.
Next up we have Mr. Therrien for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Gunn, I want you to tell us more about employing young people.
During the pandemic, we spoke about the possibility of having weekend voting days, which could enable young people to work.
I want you to talk about this. I think that it's a good idea to employ 15- or 16-year-olds. At the same time, it teaches them how democracy works.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
It's one of the recommendations, I guess, that Elections Canada would like to see to help them access voting stations.
I know Mr. Alghabra had some concerns initially about whether or not it should be on Monday or something like that. I think Canadians have no problem switching to Saturday and Sunday.
Elections Canada is allowed to employ poll workers who are 16 years old on election day. What I just wanted to offer is what we can do as an organization. We can contribute to public education and engagement at a geographic level and potentially by engaging younger poll workers to work on election day, I think, in an unparalleled manner. You could look at Sabreena's organizations as similar in those community networks.
Our organization has definitely found your interim reports very useful in the past for us to continue our work. One thing I would just suggest, potentially, in these reports is that Elections Canada be encouraged to look at groups such as CIVIX or the student vote program as ways to cultivate the poll workers who would be necessary on a potential week.
The other thing is that for 16- and 17-year olds, it's a good amount of money. They may feel less threatened by the pandemic and it's great for our democracy if we have younger poll workers who could continue to be poll workers as they age.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
I find this very worthwhile.
Do I have time to ask another question, Madam Chair?
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Okay.
Ms. Delhon, are there other countries in the world where it's possible to vote at the age of 16?
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
That's a really good question, actually. I'm going to defer to Taylor on that because he probably knows more from the Colombia experience.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
Just quickly, I would say that we should save that and get into that as a whole separate meeting. There is so much to talk about on that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Are there other jurisdictions?
You could just say yes or no, for now anyway and we can—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay, there we go.
Mr. Blaikie, would you like to take a minute and get a question in? We're at the end of our time, pretty much, but I could allow it.
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Sure, thank you very much.
I think that Scotland just lowered the voting age to 16. I may be wrong, but I think that's the case.
I am just interested if our witnesses have any quick thoughts or strong feelings about the idea of telephone voting. It's something that's come up in testimony here. We don't have any federal experience with it, but there is some experience in B.C., so I'll go really quickly to Ms. Delhon first and then Mr. Gunn.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
I understand that it was used effectively in B.C. particularly for those who had to be in quarantine because of the pandemic or those who were living in rural and remote communities, particularly first nations communities. It definitely should be considered.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
Mr. Blaikie, I would just suggest, and this is the attitude and behaviour of election agencies across the country, to make voting as successful as possible. This also comes from the last few years, and did come up in the debate around the Fair Elections Act. I wouldn't say that electoral fraud is non-existent, but it is extremely limited, so looking at anything for how to make voting more accessible is worthwhile, and potentially experimenting with.
I would say that I don't believe we should begin to vote online. We're not ready for it because of its security, and I do not think it will increase people's motivation.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you, Mr. Gunn and Ms. Delhon. That's the end of our time today.
I really appreciate the interesting conversation, and I'm sure all of the members do as well. Perhaps, because it seemed like there was quite a lot of interest, if the members feel there are some follow-up questions they may have, could they submit those in writing and maybe get responses?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
All right. To all the members, if there is anything you feel that you want to ask, just please send it along to me and we can try to get a response for our final report.
Thank you so much.
We will switch into our second panel now.