Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the invitation to appear before the standing committee today and to participate in the important discussions that are going on.
New Brunswick's election management body is the first in Canada to hold a provincial general election during the pandemic and I hope that sharing our experiences will assist you in your deliberations on the report submitted by Chief Electoral Officer Perrault.
I don't plan to use the full five minutes allotted to me for an opening statement and I'm looking forward to answering any questions you have.
What I do want to raise is that in the spirit of full disclosure, Elections New Brunswick is pursuing legislative changes as a result of our experiences with the provincial general election, specifically around municipal elections. Unlike most elections bodies across the country, Elections New Brunswick is responsible not only for administering and conducting provincial elections but also for administering and conducting municipal elections and elections for district education councils and appointments to regional health authorities. Those elections are coming up in May 2021. They were delayed due to the pandemic. They were supposed to have been held in May 2020. As a result of our experiences during the provincial general election, we are requesting amendments to the Municipal Elections Act that, if accepted by government and passed by the legislative assembly, would provide my office and me with greater flexibility in administering those municipal and local elections in May 2021.
What our experience during the provincial general election last month showed us is that clearly the prescriptive nature of the elections act limited my ability to respond to challenges that arose from holding an election during a pandemic, particularly given that, as you all know, at this point it is a very fluid situation—and that applies right across the country.
So I'll be asking for more flexibility to modify and adapt election procedures as required in order to run those municipal elections, and also to limit that flexibility, because there's good reason legislatively why you want relatively prescriptive legislation when it comes to elections. The flexibility that I'll be looking for will be limited to cases where the province is either in a state of emergency or a local state of emergency has been declared, and that would include a public health emergency such as we are currently in.
The ultimate goal of requesting that flexibility is to ensure that no elector is disenfranchised as a result of unforeseen obstacles that may arise as a result of the pandemic and as we continue to administer elections during this very unprecedented time.
Those are my short opening comments and I'm looking forward to the questions from the committee this afternoon.