Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 17th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Therrien.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Religious reasons, among others, are cited for not voting on weekends. I'm not an expert on religions, but I imagine that for some people Saturday is the holiday, while for others it's Sunday. It may even be two days, or even three days for some religions. I don't know, there are many religions.

Let's say I'm from a religion that prohibits me from voting on the weekend. There is always advance voting and postal voting. We're expanding the process a lot. We certainly don't want to harm people who are in that situation or exclude them from democracy, but they still have the option of voting at advance polls or by mail.

I have nothing at all against people with religious beliefs, but there are many other ways in which these people can exercise their right to vote safely, closer to home. As Mr. Roussel told us so emphatically, it is difficult to hold three voting days. So I don't understand why we are obsessed with these three days, when all the people on the ground who have been running elections for decades tell us that it can't happen easily.

Can we be reasonable, put partisanship aside, and listen to the Chief Electoral Officer, whose profession this is?

I personally would have preferred it to be one day, but given everything we hear, I think two days is a good compromise. I'm willing to make that compromise, because there are members of the committee who want to give people more chances to vote in person, which is very virtuous. I accept that. We will vote closer to home and we will have more and bigger premises. We will be able to vote in schools and there will be more time slots and workers. In the context of a pandemic, I find it hard to imagine that this would not be ideal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Therrien, those are good points.

Mr. Clerk, can we have a recorded vote?

[The Clerk]

The vote is on amendment BQ‑2.1.

(Amendment negatived: nays 9; yeas 2 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 3 agreed to: yeas 7; nays 4)

(On clause 4)

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

The first amendment for clause 4 is CPC-7.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Thanks very much.

This amendment would increase the minimum writ period from 36 to 43 days. We're putting this through, as the Chief Electoral Officer indicated—it was not specifically in his recent testimony but it was definitely in some other conversations that were had—because the longer the writ period, the easier it would be for them to pull it off. That is why we have increased that amount of time from 36 to 43 days.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Ms. Vecchio. You explained that very well.

Mr. Nater, go ahead.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Very briefly, could I get comments from the Elections Canada officials on the practicality of making that amendment and whether that would be consistent with the advice that was given to the committee some time ago that it would provide them with more time?

Could we get confirmation that it would be of benefit to Elections Canada to pull off the election with an additional week for the minimum writ period?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Ms. Lawson.

[Anne Lawson]

I was going to say I think the Chief Electoral Officer has been quite clear that a longer writ period is preferable for the administration of the election.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you for that input.

We'll have a recorded vote.

(Amendment negatived: nays 6; yeas 5 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Thank you very much.

We are moving on to CPC-8. I wanted to let Mr. Therrien know that if CPC-8 is adopted, BQ-3, which is coming up after this, cannot be moved due to a line conflict.

That's for your awareness and everyone's awareness, Mr. Therrien.

Go ahead, whoever wants to move CPC-8.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

This amendment would prevent elections from ending on a holiday Monday. I think we saw, from the beginning of the debate, the confusion around what mail-in ballots look like and the fact that they would be opened on Tuesdays. To me, if we're worried about what happens when these ballots are mailed in, the simplest solution is to not have an election on a holiday Monday. That would include Thanksgiving Day and perhaps the long weekend in May, whatever it may be.

This is a very simple solution to a very complicated and complex issue that seems to have political feelings of its own. Not having an election on a holiday Monday would take all of those little issues and put them aside.

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

Do you want a recorded vote on that?

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Madam Chair, I just want to make a quick note that I was supportive of the two-day voting period in our previous vote. It's something that perhaps Mr. Therrien will move again in BQ-3.

CPC-7 and CPC-8 go together as a package, which would have the consequence of making BQ-3 inadmissible.

I'm voting to keep the option of the committee reconsidering a two-day voting period.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thanks for sharing your thought process.

We'll have a recorded vote on CPC-8.

(Amendment negatived: nays 7; yeas 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We are moving on to BQ-3.

Mr. Therrien.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

I think you know my position.

We're offering you another chance to do the right thing. We are extending a chaste and beautiful hand to you. We ask that the voting be done over two days, hoping that this time will be the right time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Would you like a recorded vote?

Mr. Clerk, go ahead.

(Amendment negatived: nays 9; yeas 2 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

It's interesting how things are working out.

Next is CPC-9.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

This amendment would change Saturday and Sunday voting hours during the election weekend from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., to 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

These were some changes that were brought forward. We had lots of discussions on what it would look like. We're trying to look at flexibility for workers and what would give better timing for locations, as well. Many locations, whether it's an exercise facility or a school, have morning programming. A lot of those are used in the mornings, so this would give another option.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

Would you like a recorded vote?

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Yes, please.

Can I just say one more thing?

The way this is looking is that we're probably going to go to a three-day election. By looking at the way the cards are unfolding and how everything is turning out, I think we do also recognize that this is looking at timing for our election workers. This is going to reduce the downtime just a little bit. For deputy returning officers and other people who are working on those election days, we are looking at a way of also reducing their time while trying to get as many opportunities for people to vote as possible. It would decrease the hours, but it would increase the opportunity perhaps even for recruitment.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Would this make it seven hours a day?

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Yes, it reduces it to seven, rather than 9:30 to 5:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

All right. That evening time is good.

Could we have a vote, Mr. Vaive?

There's a hand up.

Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I'm sorry. I just wanted to state that I think what we would all consider very obvious is that electors would probably be under a natural assumption that these polls would be open relative from the nine to five time frame. While I understand the intention of the amendment that the Conservatives have put forward, I respectfully disagree. I think we need to stick to a time frame that electors are used to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Blaikie has his hand up.