Evidence of meeting #31 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 election.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Perrault and our guests from Elections Canada.
I have to apologize. There is a kindergarten class going on in the other room, and it sounds like they're singing a Father's Day song. I'll try to tune that out so that I'm still surprised on Sunday.
Thank you, again, to our witnesses. This has been a fascinating conversation.
I want to start out by saying a word of appreciation to you, Mr. Perrault, and to Elections Canada for the work that you've already undertaken leading up to a potential election by taking into account different mitigation measures if there is a snap election at some point. That kind of leads into my first question.
Obviously, this committee is actually moving heaven and earth, I would say, to get through C-19 prior to the House rising in a week's time. I just want to gauge your comfort level. Obviously, there are risks with this pandemic. There's never not going to be a risk when we're dealing with a global pandemic, but I just want to gauge your comfort level right now—if there was an election over the summer months or early into the fall without C-19 having received royal assent—with running an election under the current rules, taking into account, obviously, the adaptation measures that you've already noted.
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That is a very important message that I have for the committee and, of course, anybody listening.
We have taken the measures we feel are necessary to offer a safe voting environment. We've done that since last fall and since then, we've improved our capacity to deliver postal ballots and to process postal ballot requests. As I said in my introductory remarks, I think we are in a good position with all of this work now not only to offer a safe election, but also to offer good service [Technical difficulty—Editor] options to Canadians.
Now, that doesn't mean there will not be challenges. There are always challenges that we will have, and they're even more significant in a pandemic, but we are in a good position right now to deliver an election.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Thank you for that. I appreciate that and I think that is a vote of confidence in your agency and something that we as parliamentarians, and as politicians [[Technical difficulty—Editor] inform our public about the confidence we have in your agency.
If I have time, I will come back to some of the recruitment challenges, but I want to go back to something that's been talked about a few times already. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I think it is an important issue. That's the two-day versus three-day versus one-day writ period. Obviously, your recommendation was a Saturday and Sunday. In C-19, the government has gone in a different direction with the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
In your opening comments, you did note you would prefer either a traditional Monday or a Saturday and Sunday and not the combination of the two. I just wanted to clarify that, if given the choice, you would rather have a single one-day voting period on a Monday versus the Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Is that your position?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That is the devil that we know—indeed. Yes, I think so.
I think there's also what we've seen since last fall, when I made my recommendations. It's been confirmed by a number of provincial elections. Not only is the uptake quite significant for postal voting, which we knew by surveys—it has also been demonstrated in the provincial elections—but there's also a significant uptake for advance polls. If an election were held today, we could expect that upwards of 50% of voters would have voted prior to either the weekend or the Monday of voting.
That's something that is quite significant that was not as clear when I made my recommendations last fall.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Yes. I appreciate that.
That kind of leads in logically to my next question. Obviously, there are four days of advance polls plus however many days of polling we will have under Bill C-19, whether we stick with the three days or move to a single day or a single weekend. It goes back to the staffing challenges. I have heard anecdotally that, with the census, there has been a bit of a challenge in terms of recruiting people to fill these positions.
Looking at an election context, especially within a pandemic, I don't want to stereotype [Technical difficulty—Editor] volunteer or to work as elections officials tend to be slightly older than me, in that age cohort. I want to know what efforts the agency is making currently in terms of ensuring that there are appropriate staffing levels for four days of advance polling before an election day, regardless of how many and what challenges you're seeing. What might need to be done, legislatively or otherwise, to address that staffing challenge?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
You can answer that, but please be very quick. Unfortunately, we're out of time.
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Just quickly, this is of course a big challenge. Returning officers are well aware of that. It's probably their main concern. In the last election, we were not able to recruit as many as we wanted to.
In terms of the age cohort for our poll workers, which is older than the average adult population, the progress of the vaccinations is helping in that sense. That's of assistance. We have also significantly increased the budget for advertising for recruitment. We will be making some efforts to assist returning officers to meet that challenge.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
June 15th, 2021 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning. Thank you for coming.
I think right now we're all encouraged by increasing vaccinations. In fact, Canada leads the world in first doses, and of course we have cases going down. However, things can change in a pandemic. Preparedness is everything when it comes to pandemics. My concern is really about protecting the health and safety of Canadians. I'm going to ask a series of questions, which will largely be “yes” or “no”.
Is Elections Canada consulting and receiving guidance from the chief public health officer on running an election during COVID-19?
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Yes—from all provinces and territories and also federally.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Has Elections Canada included IPAC specialists in the planning of an election?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We get our advice from the public health authorities of the provinces and Canada.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
You have answered this, but I will ask again: Will Elections Canada be able to run a safe election should there be an election this summer or fall?
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I have no doubt that we could offer safe voting, even in-presence voting, if there were an election today.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Should there be a fourth wave, will Elections Canada be able to run a safe election? Answer yes or no, please.
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I have no concerns in that regard.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Is Elections Canada taking into preparation the possibility of the spread of variants of concern, including the delta variant? Answer yes or no, please.
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We are following closely, of course, what's happening in terms of the variants. The protective measures are the same notwithstanding the variants. We are introducing some rapid testing at our Coventry office to detect any possible cases emerging there.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Right now, are you planning to have...? I'll come back to this. It's regarding schools.
Will there be capacity limits inside polling stations? Answer yes or no, please.
11:45 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
The capacity will be dictated by the size of the polling place. As I said earlier, that determines the number of polling tables and the number of polling divisions. If necessary people would have to line up outside, so we'll make sure that, at all times, distancing is respected irrespective of the size of the location.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
Will Elections Canada have mechanisms in place to protect the health of election workers, yes or no?