Evidence of meeting #5 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 poffenroth.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
In New Brunswick?
They had to fill in an application for a special ballot, which is available on the website or you can pick up a paper copy. It requires a signature in addition to the other information. The signature is the most important piece.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Did they have to photocopy a piece of ID and include that in there with the signature?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
No. In New Brunswick, legislatively there is no requirement for photo ID if you're already on the list of electors. If you're not already a registered voter, then you would have to provide up to two pieces of ID that have three pieces of information: your signature, your civic address and your name.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Did either of you have a plan if there was a considerable spike during the election—like two weeks in or a week in—and things had to be shut down?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
This would have been when you were unavailable.
In New Brunswick, there's no option under the Elections Act to stop an election once the election writ has been issued or once I've been directed to issue the writ, for that matter.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
In Prince Edward Island, I have the authority for certain reasons to put forward a recommendation to postpone...to withdraw the writ of election. It is the Lieutenant Governor in Council who, upon my advice, may withdraw the writ. It would have to be reissued within three months of that happening. I currently have that in our legislation.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Did either of you consult with your local health authorities?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Unfortunately, that's all the time we have. That will have to be a follow-up question maybe.
Dr. Duncan is next for five minutes.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to begin by thanking our witnesses. Thank you for joining us today and bringing your experience and expertise.
For this first question, I'm looking for a yes or no answer. It's both to Ms. Poffenroth and Mr. Garrity.
Would each of you please table with the committee the range and the number of cases from the lowest and the highest number, as well as the average number of cases, for the election period?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
Yes, we would be able to do that. I believe in P.E.I. it's been zero.
Liberal
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
Yes, I can do that. Similarly, I think it was zero.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Ms. Poffenroth, would you please be willing to table with the committee the health and safety measures for each of your yellow, orange and red levels?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
We only have one document, so I can table that.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you so very much.
Mr. Garrity, you mentioned you were an office of three. Did you have to hire new people, yes or no?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
Yes, we did hire additional people within the office and poll workers.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Could you please give us an estimate for your office of what the increase was for the poll workers?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
We had two additional people here in the office and we still do. We have hired five additional people to work at the poll.
We call them “COVID compliance officers”. Essentially they're...a bit of traffic, as well as sanitizing. They're cleaning surfaces after every elector votes. They clean the voting compartments.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Mr. Garrity, how many people would you normally have in the polls? What per cent increase does that represent, please?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
That would probably be almost a 20% increase at the poll itself.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
I'm wondering if you would both table with the committee the percentage increase in spending for the election by item. Was it on supplies, poll workers...?
Ms. Poffenroth, would you be willing to table that, please?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections New Brunswick
Yes. We are still receiving the invoices, so I can't guarantee when we would be able to have that available.
Liberal
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Prince Edward Island
Yes, I will, but of course we still have a week left before our vote is done. Once we get all the numbers we absolutely will.