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.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Orb, you spoke about advance polling.
From what I've seen, it has increased substantially. For example, in 2019, in my constituency, a huge influx of people voted in advance. If I were to apply your figures to the new pandemic reality, it would be disastrous in my constituency. We would have many public health issues, because people would really be crowded together.
Were there more advance polling days in Saskatchewan?
Would we need more hours and more days to avoid a situation like the one I'm talking about?
12:50 p.m.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
Yes, that was the case. That does help because it reduces the concentration [Technical difficulty--Editor]
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
It seems like there is a connectivity problem.
Mr. Orb, can you try again?
12:50 p.m.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
I'm sorry. Can you hear me now?
12:50 p.m.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
The idea of having more days of advance polls and extended hours is a good one and can be helpful because it does reduce the number of people in a polling station at one time.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
You didn't have any issues even though many people ended up there.
By increasing the number of days and hours, the congestion didn't become a public health risk. Is that what you're telling me?
12:50 p.m.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
I can only speak from the rural perspective, in that sense. We don't have as many people in the rural area. The population isn't as large, and so there wouldn't be that many people voting.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Okay, thank you.
My question is for Ms. Chayer.
Do you have any issues with delivering mail across Canada, even though we have very remote regions?
Do you think that this challenge will become very difficult to overcome in a fairly short period?
12:50 p.m.
General Manager, Customer Experience, Canada Post Corporation
I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand the question. Was it around the timelines of the mail?
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Given that Canada is a very large country, is it challenging to cover the entire territory in very short periods?
12:50 p.m.
General Manager, Customer Experience, Canada Post Corporation
We deliver across this vast country every day and billions of pieces of mail every year. Yes, there are some challenges for sure. There are things like seasonality, storms and things that we have to react to almost every day as we put mail through.
We do have contingencies that are built. We do our best to deliver everything that we can on time. When there are exceptions, we bring in the contingencies to do the best that we can to recover.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you.
Ms. Chayer, when we heard from the CEO of Elections Canada, he said that he was very confident in Canada Post's ability to deliver the mail when it comes to mail-in ballots. He had said that the challenge of increased volume would be more so on the logistical side for Elections Canada in terms of sorting those and making sure they end up in the right place to be counted.
In the situation where somebody applies for their mail-in ballot, receives it and has a prepaid envelope to use to return the completed ballot, do you envision that going to an Elections Canada headquarters and then being mailed to local returning offices? Or is that something that, based on the postal code of the sender, can be sorted and then sent directly through local mail to local returning offices across the country?
Do you have a sense of how the logistics of that mail-in ballot would work and Canada Post's role in that, whether it's delivering to a centralized location, having Elections Canada do the sorting and then mailing again, or whether Canada Post would be involved in sorting in a more direct and immediate way and then deliver locally to the local returning office?
12:55 p.m.
General Manager, Customer Experience, Canada Post Corporation
From our our discussions with Elections Canada to date, the logistics would entail people requesting a mail-in ballot, which would be fulfilled by the local RO. Three hundred and thirty-eight of them would fulfill that order for the mail-in ballot, and that return envelope would go back to the returning officer. There are some other votes that will be centralized to go to Ottawa, like the internationals and things like that.
By and large, the local vote will be held locally and will be returned locally. That's why it's important for us to test all of the envelopes that will be pre-produced. How they will be printed and how they will affix the return address.... It's important for us to make sure that everything is done properly, so that we can have a high mechanized rate on our equipment and make sure that we return things on time. That's part of the testing that we're doing with all 338, because they will be held locally and returned locally.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Are those envelopes printed at the local returning office? Does Canada Post play a role in preparing those envelopes and the address on them or is that happening at each local returning office?
12:55 p.m.
General Manager, Customer Experience, Canada Post Corporation
I'd have to confirm where they are actually being printed. I don't have those details. I'd be glad to get back to you in terms of the logistics of the printing.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you.
That's all the time for this interaction.
Mr. Lukiwski, would you like a couple of minutes?
December 3rd, 2020 / 12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK
Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chair. I know time is tight.
I should probably initially say, in the spirit of full transparency, that I've known Ray Orb for well over 30 years. He has been completely professional and non-partisan in all of our dealings. I have also worked extensively on one or two political campaigns with his wife—just so that's out on the table.
Ray, it's good to see you again. I have one quick question for you and then one for Canada Post, should we have enough time.
Ray, you've talked about the challenges of elections during certain times of the calendar year for rural Canadians and rural Saskatchewanians. We've heard a lot of talk over the course of the last few weeks about the possibility of a spring election. Of course, spring in Saskatchewan means seeding.
What do you think would occur in terms of voter turnout if an election were called in the middle of seeding in Saskatchewan?
12:55 p.m.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
I don't think the turnout would be as good. However, the use of mail-in ballots, I think, is something that would alleviate some of that. If you're a farmer, the spring and the fall are the times when you don't want elections. Any other time of the year, I think, is suitable.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK
Thank you very much.
Quickly, then, to Madam Chayer, could you give me an approximate timeline for the return delivery by mail? The Elections Canada folks have told us that, in all probability for the five million or so ballots that might be mailed in if an election were held in a pandemic, there would have to be a deadline for Elections Canada to receive them. The talk has been that it would be the Monday—if there is a Monday election date—with a 5 p.m. delivery deadline for mail-in ballots to be returned.
How long does it normally take, if a ballot is put in the mail, for it to be received? Also, what advice would you give to Elections Canada about advising or giving a deadline for Canadians to put the ballots in the mail?
1 p.m.
General Manager, Customer Experience, Canada Post Corporation
That's something we continue to work with Elections Canada on. For the local-to-local, we are looking at two days. That is our service standard around the “local locals”. In two days we should be able to turn that around with no problem.
The issue we do have is how voters will be informed of the deadline to drop it into the box. As I mentioned earlier, our collection system is based on a Monday-to-Friday pickup, and it's based on different hours. Not every little red mailbox has the mail picked up from it at 5 o'clock. For some it might be at 11 in the morning and for some it might be at two in the afternoon. Making sure that voters are well informed of when they should be putting that ballot in the mailbox will be key to making sure that the ballots get to where they need to go.
As an example, if somebody put something in a box, as I mentioned, at about five o'clock on a Friday, and that box got cleared at three, it's not going to be picked up on the Friday. It's going to be picked up on the Monday, and it will not be delivered on time to the regional office—to the RO—on the Monday.
Those are things and scenarios we are working through with Elections Canada so that they understand how things work and can take that information under advice to make sure voters are well informed and can make those decisions.
1 p.m.
Conservative