Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 29th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number six of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

I would like to start the meeting by providing you with some information following the motion that was adopted in the House on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

The committee is now sitting in a hybrid format, meaning that members can participate either in person or by video conference. Witnesses must always appear by video conference.

All members, regardless of the method of participation, will be counted for the purpose of quorum. The committee's power to sit is, however, limited by the priority use of House of Commons resources, which is determined by the party whips.

All questions must be decided by a recorded vote unless the committee disposes of them by unanimous consent or on division.

Finally, the committee may deliberate in camera, provided that it takes into account the potential risk to confidentiality inherent in such deliberations with remote participants.

Today's proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. The webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee, or what you may be seeing in grid view format on your screen.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I'd like to outline a few rules to follow.

For those participating virtually, members and witnesses may speak in either official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either “Floor”, “English” or “French”.

At the beginning, when we started virtual meetings, we were having to switch between English and French. I believe that this issue has been corrected, and you can choose either “Floor”, “English” or “French” now. There should not be an issue with the interpretation, sound or volume level.

Before speaking, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike. When you're done speaking, please put your mike on mute to minimize any interference.

I will remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.

Should members need to request the floor outside of their designated speaking time for questions, they should activate their mike and state they have a point of order. If members wish to intervene on a point of order, please use the “raised hand” function.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the use of headsets with a boom mike is mandatory for all participating remotely.

Should any technical challenges arise, please advise the chair. Please note we may need to suspend for a few minutes to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.

For those participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is meeting in person in the committee room. Should you wish to get my attention, signal me with a gesture or call out my name. Should you wish to raise a point of order, wait for the appropriate time to indicate you have a point of order.

The clerk and I will try to keep a consolidated speaking list order.

Without further ado, let's welcome our fantastic witnesses before our committee today.

We've been watching you on our television screens, and maybe some members have been able to meet you personally as well, depending on what province they're from.

Welcome to Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer from British Columbia; and also Barbara J. Raymond, the executive medical advisor, vice-president's office, for the infectious disease prevention and control branch of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Each of you will have five minutes for introductory remarks. After that, we will have a few rounds of questions from our committee members.

Please go ahead, Dr. Bonnie Henry.

[Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, Ministry of Health, Government of British Columbia]

Thank you, and good morning.

I want to start by acknowledging that I am speaking to you today from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish, the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh first nations here in Vancouver, and I'm very grateful to be able to speak to you from these beautiful territories.

We've been asked to talk about elections. As you know, we just completed one, although the final vote is not yet in, given the election legal requirement out here that you need to wait a certain amount of time for counting the ballots.

We learned quite a lot. I think the biggest thing we learned was to connect early and often. Where I come from in Prince Edward Island, we say that about voting: vote early and vote often.

Out here, we met with Elections BC starting in March. There were scheduled elections meant to happen in March. On my advice, we postponed those, given the situation we were dealing with at the time. We continued to meet to answer a number of questions. In particular, we developed a very detailed guidance, and that was very helpful. We met a number of times with Elections BC, but we also had question-and-answer sessions and detailed sessions with all of the electoral officers from each of the 87 electoral districts around B.C. We did Zoom meetings on those. Those were also very helpful.

As I'm sure is the same for federal elections, many of the people who work on elections are older and of a demographic that is concerned about their own health, and COVID in particular. We were able to allay fears and make sure we had all of the processes in place. We have detailed guidance on that, which we're happy to share.

Another thing that I think is really important is that we met with an all-party committee. The political parties have a committee—this is my not understanding the political part of things—around elections. We met with them a number of times to make sure each party had guidance on how they could conduct campaigns safely during COVID. We talked about things like going door to door and what that would look like, having smaller gatherings, not allowing large groups together, wearing masks and all of those things that are important in campaigning safely during this period of time.

I think there were three things that were the most important. Allowing the ability to mail in ballots was really helpful, not only for the public but also for the people who work in the elections. There were all kinds of questions. For example, what if somebody licks the ballot envelope; does that mean it's safe? We talked a lot about washing their hands.

We had extended advance polls and made sure they were over the weekend. That became really important. There was a lot of concern, as many voting places are schools. Schools are designed to be very easy. People can be indoors. You can separate them. There are gyms or other large spaces. Because our schools are back in session, for the teachers and students to feel that they were being respected and safe, it was important to have those places available on the weekends and to have other places during the week. We didn't want people mixing with the students and teachers in the school. Extending our advance polls for a longer period of days and over weekends was important.

As well, we switched the voting day. It normally would be a Tuesday, and it was switched to a Saturday. That proved to be really beneficial in a number of ways. One, it meant that we could use voting places like schools again, but it also meant that people who would normally be at work on election day were able to work in some of the voting stations. We had a broader swath of people who were available to work. Anton Boegman, our chief electoral officer here in British Columbia, can give you many of the details. We reduced it from two people sitting at a table to one. That worked very efficiently. We had provisions for being able put in plexiglass barriers so that people could hold up their ID. There are lots of details that made it very efficient and very safe.

Lots of people voted, although I understand it was one of the lowest turnouts that we've had. It was all done safely. There were no incidents that we were aware of. It was really a matter of walking through all of the possibilities ahead of time and making sure that people were confident in being able to do it safely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Dr. Barbara Raymond has also circulated opening remarks to all the committee members, if you wish to follow along with those as well.

Go ahead, Dr. Raymond.

[Dr. Barbara Raymond, Executive Medical Advisor, Vice-President’s Office, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Madam Chair, I'm pleased to return to this committee. I appeared before you last April, a mere lifetime ago. Today I am here to respond to your questions related to holding safe elections in our current COVID-19 environment.

There is no doubt that holding elections in the COVID-19 context presents unique challenges. The protection of Canadian voters and communities and the protection of Elections Canada staff and volunteers are key concerns.

To this end, the Public Health Agency of Canada, or PHAC, has been engaging with Elections Canada to support their planning efforts for an election during a pandemic. Guidance, tools and advice based on best current scientific evidence, expert opinion and public health practice have been shared with Elections Canada to assist them in determining what risks and mitigation strategies should be considered at election offices and at polling stations across Canada to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

I will note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, given the variability of COVID-19 epidemiology across the country. As a result, it is critically important for Elections Canada to be closely engaged with provincial and local public health authorities to ensure that their planning takes into account local regulations and guidance.

To this end, PHAC has also helped to facilitate connections between Elections Canada and our provincial and territorial public health counterparts in order for that provincial and territorial advice and guidance to be incorporated into the federal planning. Working with the provincial and territorial public health authorities across Canada really will be crucial to determining how the national framework for elections can be adapted to the needs of each jurisdiction for safe elections.

We are very fortunate to have Dr. Henry with us today. I'm very anxious to hear of her lived experience with the election and hearing her advice as we go forward.

Sadly, however, COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on the lives of Canadians. It remains an unparalleled threat to the health and social and economic well-being of Canadians and the global community. At this point in time, there are 26,687 active cases across the country. The latest national-level data indicate daily averages of 2,747 new cases in the week of October 22-28. Close to 75,000 people were tested in the week of October 11-17, with 3.1% of those testing positive.

Outbreaks continue to contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. These vary in size from just a few cases to large clusters. They occur in a range of settings, including long-term care and assisted living facilities, schools, congregate living settings, industrial work settings and large social gatherings.

The number of people experiencing severe illness continues to increase. Provincial and territorial data indicate that an average of 1,095 people with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals each day during the most recent seven-day period for which we have data—October 22-28—including 228 who were in ICU beds.

During the same period, there were unfortunately an average of 29 COVID-19-related deaths reported daily.

Sadly, as hospitalizations and deaths tend to lag behind increased disease activity by one to several weeks, our concern is that we have yet to see the extent of the severe impacts that are associated with the current ongoing increase in COVID-19 disease activity throughout Canada.

Although we are COVID-fatigued, we must continue to sustain our collective efforts to bring the infection rate down to manageable levels. Public health cannot do this alone; it requires sustained effort from each one of us. We must continuously and consistently maintain effective public health practices: stay home if you have symptoms, even mild ones; wash your hands frequently; maintain physical distancing and wear a face mask as appropriate.

I would like to highlight the unprecedented coordination among federal, provincial and territorial governments, which has allowed us to make the progress that we have in the implementation of robust public health and related response measures. We see the results of this work on a daily basis, and the core public health measures have become common features of our everyday lives and everyday conversations.

We continue to communicate daily to Canadians to make sure they have the information they need to protect themselves, to reduce the impact of the pandemic and to help Canadians make informed decisions about safely participating in everyday life, including elections. Dr. Theresa Tam has said that the hard truth is that COVID-19 is still very much with us. We have a long road ahead, so we are asking Canadians not to lose hope, to stay the course and to keep being part of the solution.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Raymond and Dr. Henry.

I will remind all the members that both witnesses are here to answer questions on public health considerations in conducting a federal election during the COVID-19 pandemic, so let us keep our questions related to an election and try to get the best advice possible from these wonderful witnesses.

We also have with us Ms. May, as she visits us from time to time when we are doing some interesting studies. Welcome to you as well, and if any of the members wish to share their time with Ms. May, please let me know. We'll see if we can be efficient and have some time before committee business starts today. We'll try to squeeze you in then, if there's some extra time. Please let me know if you want to share.

Thank you, Ms. May.

We'll start with the first questions for six minutes. We'll begin with Mrs. Vecchio.

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

Thank you very much.

Thank you to both Dr. Henry and Dr. Raymond for joining us here today.

I want to focus a lot of my questions on seniors, and not just the seniors in our long-term care facilities and palliative care, some of our vulnerable demographics. I want to look at the people who do the work in the polls as well. As was indicated—Dr. Henry, you mentioned it—many of the poll workers are seniors, so I wanted to start with looking at the voters in long-term care homes.

What are some of the suggestions you have to make sure we can enable them to vote, while making sure we protect them?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I'm happy to start with that.

That was, of course, something we were very concerned about. There were a couple of things. One was making sure they were able to vote, particularly people who were in long-term care or in hospital. We did make particular provisions. We had a couple of backup things that we could do. One of them was ensuring that we had people trained in using personal protective equipment who were able to go into a long-term care homes and facilitate people voting in the care home.

We also had the option of mail-in ballots that people could use within a care home as well, or in hospital, and they would be collected from them. They could do the ballot in their room, and rather than putting it in the mail, an electoral officer would go around and pick it up for them.

The final thing that we had for people who couldn't use those methods was an option that they've put together here in British Columbia—and Anton would have the details of it—that allows people to vote by phone. It's a process that allows you to call in to a specific number where your identification is confirmed, and then you're anonymously passed over to another person who takes your vote. We had all of those in place to be able to support seniors in care homes as well as people in hospital who were eligible to vote. That was really helpful.

As for seniors who were actively part of the electoral teams, we spent quite a bit of time with them going through the things that keep us safe and the barriers that are in place. There was a lot of detail put into how the voting places were set up. Plexiglass was our best friend, and there were lots of appropriate barriers. We had to have scripts to talk to people about how it's our natural inclination to look around the barrier to talk to people. We educated people in line as they were waiting to go in to vote.

We didn't make masks mandatory, but we made masks available for everybody coming in to vote. We asked them to wear a mask. We said that it was an expectation of people who were going into a voting place.

We had appropriate lines. The voting stations were all separated and marked appropriately, so you came in one way and out the other. There was no mixing, and it worked very well. The seniors and others who were involved had access to PPE. It was an additional expense, but everybody had access to masks and face shields. There were a lot of people who wanted to wear visors, particularly if they were monitoring people in line and talking to people about how the process was going to work.

Those were the basics.

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

Dr. Henry, I want to ask a couple more questions on this aspect.

You talked about the mail-in ballots and the fact that they are still being counted. I'm looking at what's happening as all Canadian media are covering the U.S. election right now. They're talking about the 71 million ballots that have been received, and we're seeing court injunctions that mean some people are going to be waiting two weeks, and some are saying the ballot has to be received by the date of the election. Do you believe that extending the voting time will be one of the things that will address this type of issue so that people will have more time to vote?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I'm not sure what you mean about extending the voting time. What we did was—

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

I mean extending it by a number of days, so perhaps going from 35 to 50 days. Do you think that is something that should be considered?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I don't have an opinion on that, to be honest. We had a set period of time that's the minimum under the law here. It was a relatively short period of time. Expanding the availability of advance polls was really helpful. A lot of people voted in the advance polls.

The other thing is that for us, the ballots had to be received by 8 p.m. on election day, and they could be dropped off at many different places. I know that in the U.S. they can be received as long as they're mailed by election day, so those are things that you would have to think through.

It is a quirk of the Election Act here in B.C. that we have to wait 13 days before the mail-in ballots are counted. That is hopefully going to change. The mail-in ballots in B.C. are all counted by hand, and that's one of the reasons it takes quite a bit longer, and I know they are looking at how to speed up that process by using electronic means. That would be very helpful as well.

It depends on what systems you have in place to be able to efficiently count mail-in ballots.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

Next we have Dr. Duncan. Go ahead, please, for six minutes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Dr. Henry and Dr. Raymond. Thank you for everything you're both doing to protect the health and safety of Canadians. I'm very grateful.

I have many questions. I'm looking for very short answers, most often yes or no. I'll begin with Dr. Henry.

Dr. Henry, did each political party develop a COVID safety plan for the B.C. election, yes or no?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

Yes, that is the requirement in British Columbia.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you. Was that mandated or agreed to by political parties?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

It's mandated by me. I have a provincial health officer order in place that requires that of all organizations and businesses, and there was no exception for this.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you. Did you review each of the plans, yes or no?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

My office did.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you. Did you make recommendations to strengthen the plans, yes or no?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

Yes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

You mentioned there was provincial health guidance for the election to keep communities, candidates, staff, and volunteers safe during the election. Would you be willing to table that guidance with the committee, please?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I will check with Elections BC. I'm sure they'd be happy to.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you so much.

Did local health units provide additional guidance, yes or no?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I don't know. Some of them probably did.