Evidence of meeting #4 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.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
The concern that I'm seeing in my province of British Columbia, where we go to the polls on Saturday of this week, is that according to the information coming out of the office, is that we may not have the results for weeks, and possibly not even for a month, or going into Christmas.
Extending the election period, as you're suggesting, to 51 days.... Have you considered what the time frame would be for the official results to be announced, given the scope of a federal election?
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There is a difference between the B.C. system and our system. In British Columbia, electors can vote at any place in B.C., within the province, at all times, so they have a fairly extensive use of special ballots for that purpose, whether it's by mail or in person.
That requires a verification process that takes place I think something like 14 days after a polling day. They will experience some very significant late results. That is not something that we would see federally, though if we had millions of votes by mail we could have a result delayed by a few days, but not by anything close to—
October 22nd, 2020 / 11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today and for the tremendous work you do on behalf of all of us.
I'll begin with a few questions.
Could you table with the committee all the names of the health officials you have consulted with and the dates of each consultation? That would be a yes or a no, please.
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer to that question, because my team has consulted with health authorities and there are several members in that team. I don't know whether they have records of all of those meetings. I had discussions with Dr. Tam once, on September 2, but before and after that, there have been discussions between the teams and email exchanges.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could we get a list of all the consultations that have been taking place between those teams, please?
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We certainly will do our best to have as comprehensive a list as possible.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you so very much.
Could you also table with the committee all health and safety measures related to COVID-19 that were implemented in each of the Toronto Centre and York Centre by-elections, please?
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you so much.
Could you also table with the committee for each measure you implemented during the by-elections, how the Canada Elections Act gave you the authority?
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We can describe that. In many cases, there is no specific mention, so there's general authority, but we can certainly put together a table that has that information.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you, I ask because I know you were worried about areas where you lacked the authority.
The other thing I would ask is, could you also table with the committee any changes that you wanted to make during the by-elections but could not because you did not have the legislative authority?
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There were none, so there would be nothing to table.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
As of last night, there are over 80 outbreaks in long-term care in Ontario. British Columbia had the highest number of outbreaks in long-term care facilities yesterday. I'm wondering what consultations have been done with long-term care....
Can you table with the committee those consultations that have taken place and also let us know what types of residences you have consulted with, please? I ask because there are different types of long-term care and different types of residences.
11:15 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
So, to manage some expectations here, there are over 5,500 long-term care facilities in Canada according to StatsCan, and I understand that number to be a fairly narrow definition of long-term care. In the Elections Act, the use of that language is much broader and includes places where seniors live. We are talking about many thousands of locations. We at headquarters do not consult directly with those offices. That is the role of returning officers during an election—
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could I address that? Could you table with the committee what consultations have taken place, understanding that there are retirement homes, there's long-term care and there are—I will quote—“group homes”. What consultations have taken place, please?
11:20 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I can do that, but again, to be clear, this will include only two electoral districts, because these consultations take place during an election, at the outset of the election, between returning officers and their local communities.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
That would be helpful. Thank you.
I have a question regarding polling station hours and the reduction from 12 to eight hours in the advance polls. In a community like the one I serve, where people often work two or three jobs, this could be a real hardship. Also, if it's happening during a pandemic and we'll want to spread out the voters and avoid clustering, I'm wondering why we would be reducing the hours, please.
11:20 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That's a very good question and I have to confess that there is no easy answer to it. Basically we would be moving from 12 hours to 16 hours, so we'd be extending the hours.
We would have two days of weekend voting. For most people, that would facilitate voting.
Why would we have eight hours instead of 12? Our expectation is that 12 hours of work by poll workers with a mask and a face shield on would make for some very difficult working conditions. We've had some anecdotal evidence from discussions with returning officers in the two ongoing by-elections at the four days of advance polls that this is very difficult on the poll workers. I am concerned with maintaining the capacity of those poll workers and not having them walk out on us on polling day.
It's a balancing act that we're trying to do. We think we can reduce the hours but increase the number of advance polls. That's to maintain or ideally increase the capacity if we have the recruitment. For the weekend voting, we would increase the voting hours.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
I have just one last question, if I may.
I would ask if you could table with this committee what measures were taken during the two by-elections to ensure the safety of the poll workers and also particularly in long-term care how you protected the residents and staff.
Thank you.
11:20 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I will, certainly, with pleasure.
