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.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
I want to get a little sense of the organizations that you represent. I have some experience with the CIVIX program. It's done very well, by the way. I like the packages that get sent out.
Top line—what's your budget? How many people are working with you? Have you seen an increase in the last 10 years in the budget for your organization?
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
Sabreena, do you want to go ahead?
11:45 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
Sure.
DemocracyXChange is co-founded by the Open Democracy Project and the Ryerson Leadership Lab. The co-presenting partners with us are The Samara Centre for Democracy, Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Toronto Public Library, OCAD University, and Ryerson University's Faculty of Arts. This was our third annual summit that we held in October.
Generally, our tickets are available for around $149. We have a special rate that's half that price as an early bird feature for students, seniors or lower-waged individuals. This year, because of the pandemic, we shifted to a “pay what you can” model in the interest of keeping the conversation as accessible as possible. The driving item for the program was how to strengthen democracy in the recovery from the pandemic.
We are definitely a lean organization, as most are that are operating in the democracy sector. We rely heavily on the networks of all the partners that I just noted. Also, we were able to harness a really important moment for our conversations about democracy this year, which is why we had a record turnout. Being virtual also meant that people from across the country could tune in in ways that otherwise would have required travel.
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
Are you going to have time for me to respond to that, as well?
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief Election Officer, CIVIX
To explain the relationship with Elections Canada—which we're grateful for—last year Elections Canada contributed around $2 million to the student vote program. That would put us somewhere in the range of under $2 per student. This is more than just active voting; in some cases this is a month-long learning experience.
Additional funds were raised to cover the cost of teacher training across Canada, other provincial elections and their work in Colombia. Last year was a terrific year, being somewhere in the range of $5.5 million. This year I think will be somewhere in the range of around $2 million. We're a project to project-based organization and very entrepreneurial. I'll just emphasize this: we don't receive funding, as in money to exist, from either Elections Canada or any election agencies or any government body. It's a mix of individual donors, community foundations, and on occasion election agencies and different levels of government.
I will also emphasize what Sabreena said, which is worth putting out there, especially to this committee. For the groups of organizations in this space, which are few—you could count them with the fingers of both hands, and a couple of them are affiliated with universities—there is no pot of money for them to excel at their work.
You can go back and figure out who said this, but a couple of different speakers, some of them election officers, were asked about turnout. What they say about turnout is that worrying about turnout isn't something they want to be tasked with. They're comfortable being tasked with making voting and elections accessible. That's great, but here's the problem with that. If election agencies aren't the ones tasked with worrying about voter turnout, nobody else has the capacity to concern themselves with that.
I'm comfortable taking the massive risk if we have the capacity to focus on voter turnout. I imagine Sabreena's organizations and a few others would love to team up with us on that. But I worry that if we leave it in the hands of election agencies who are not taking on that responsibility, they won't be as creative, ambitious, as forward-looking or risk-taking as groups like us have been for the last number of years—but on nickels and dimes, it's important to point out.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
I have yes or no questions, then, for both witnesses.
Have your organizations ever partnered with the WE Charity? Yes or no.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I'd like to ask if the Conservative Party ever did any work with the WE Charity. I think that would be a good one to get an answer to.
Ms. Delhon, you mentioned at the beginning of your introductory comments that you had concerns that we not go down the same road as in the United States, where people have to register to vote, because it should be more open and accessible. Can you expand on that comment a little?
11:50 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
It wasn't a concern that we would go down that road, but rather countering the dominant images that we saw during the American election of people in long lineups and news reports from American outlets about how long they were waiting in line—taking hours to get to vote—and the onerous process of registering to vote.
It's very different in Canada. There is also a very different history in Canada, so it's important to have our own distinct narrative, because those images from the United States were just so rampant in our heads, especially during the pandemic. Between social media and news coverage, we mix up stories about what's happening in the States and what's happening in Canada.
So, clearly bounding the narrative of the election here in Canada in a pandemic, should that happen, is very important, to make sure that messaging is very clear. It doesn't have to be an obvious countering of the American images, but we know that is what's in minds right now.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
One of the benefits we have is that our elections are run by the federal government, as opposed to individual states, which can make things messy.
How important do you think it is that people are registered to vote by default?
11:50 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
It would be important for us to look at research on that and to examine how that makes a difference. I don't have that research top of mind right now, but I understand that scholars like Semra Sevi, someone I've cited in my statement, would have important insights to share. She shared those at our DemocracyXChange summit. I'd be happy to put that together.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Do you think, first of all, that it would be beneficial, in an effort to encourage people to be participating, to make sure we've done everything we can to allow people to engage in the various different processes? Our system now is heavily based on showing up at a poll to vote, either at an advance poll or on polling day. In particular, as we're studying an election in a pandemic, do you think it's important to make sure that other and all avenues are available so that everybody can participate, such as, for example, voting by mail?
11:50 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
Yes. To go back to the American election for a moment, although it was very arduous, we saw record turnout rates, and it was because of the easing of voter restrictions.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
One of the issues we have in Canada is that our voting by mail is not very simple. Actually, in a number of states, it's a lot simpler to vote by mail because, by default, people are mailed ballots in advance. Do you think we should be changing the vote-by-mail process we have to make it easier for people to be automatically registered to vote by mail, for example, and to have a simplified process that allows it to happen very easily, as opposed to the work that goes into it now, where you have to do almost everything but provide DNA?
11:55 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
I think all avenues that would ensure a safe, effective and easy voting experience should be explored. The pandemic is giving us licence to try things in different ways, and that should be harnessed.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Do you have any reason to be concerned that allowing voting by other methods, including voting by mail, would increase fraudulent activity?
11:55 a.m.
Open Democracy Fellow, DemocracyXChange, Open Democracy Project
I don't have any specific knowledge about that, but I would look at what happened in B.C. recently, because they've used mail-in ballots for a few different elections in recent memory, one during the pandemic. They saw a high turnout in their last election—I think it was over 30%—and they didn't have any issues in terms of anything being fraudulent or any other kinds of concerns.
They did focus a lot on clearly conveying the process to get a mail-in ballot, use it and then submit it. They put a lot of energy into making that crystal clear, and then people were able to do it, so we shouldn't underestimate Canadians.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Are you suggesting that we should be doing that federally as well?
