Evidence of meeting #7 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 voters.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
I'd like to say thank you to both of you for your time, for your expertise and for being so gracious.
Thank you very much.
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
I want to thank the two witnesses who took the time to share their experiences with us.
My questions are for both of you. I invite you to respond at your convenience.
Is there a system in place so that if an infectious person went to vote, people who voted at about the same time are informed that they may have been in contact with an infectious person? It would work a bit like the COVID-19 Alert app.
Has a similar system been put in place and has voter contact information been recorded?
11:30 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Maybe I'll start.
British Columbia doesn't use the COVID Alert application. The responsibility for notification and for tracing is with our medical system. We would have taken guidance from them if there had been a positive exposure case at a voting place.
Our safety plans indicated the necessary cleaning that we needed to have in place and detailed the distancing and the use of protective equipment to mitigate the potential for an outbreak to occur. As I mentioned, I'm very gratified that we did not have any, but the notification and the other steps would have been the responsibility of the medical authorities in British Columbia.
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
11:30 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Saskatchewan
During the day, we were fortunate that COVID-19 had a very minimal impact on the process. We did identify four individuals who were close contacts of cases of COVID. In those instances, those individuals were removed as workers and a cleaning process unfolded. All of this came through guidance from the chief medical health officer as to how to proceed. We were in constant touch with the chief medical health officer throughout the day in order to receive guidance on how to proceed.
We did have a couple of cases of COVID in advance during the training process. At that time we again worked with the chief medical health officer to determine how to move forward.
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
Please answer with yes or no. As I understand it, Mr. Boegman, there was therefore no way to trace voters who may have been in contact with a voter who tested positive. Is this correct?
11:30 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Perhaps the statement I made to you was in relation to the actual contact tracing and orders from the medical authorities to self-isolate or do what was necessary.
Of course we knew who was working in our voting places. We could notify individuals in our voting places if anything was to happen. There were some instances of individuals who were ill and went for COVID tests that turned out to be negative. In those instances, when they indicated that they were ill, we did notify the other individuals who were in that workspace to make them aware that this was happening. As per our plans, they were then to told to self-monitor until the results came back.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Saskatchewan
Throughout the day, we knew who was in the polling location at all times. At that point, if an individual was identified as a case, it would have been referred directly to the local medical health officer, and contact tracing would have been pursued.
All of that was completed through the Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
I would now like to ask questions about the difficulty, for candidates and parties, of taking part in an election campaign during a pandemic.
Mr. Boegman, are you aware of some of the difficulties encountered by smaller parties? Will there be any kind of report on this subject?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Yes, once the election is complete, we will do an extensive series of post-mortems with our own district staff, the political parties and the candidates. We will survey them to understand what their experiences were.
I'm not aware of any specific or unique challenges that were raised. Of course, the entire process was very different. There was no door knocking. There was more remote contact. There was use of mail. There was use of phone. There was distancing, and there were people wearing masks standing on street corners with signs, which you usually see. The way that political parties and candidates campaigned was entirely different in COVID.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Boda, I'd like to hear what you have to say on this, please.
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Saskatchewan
Perhaps in Saskatchewan it was a little bit different from in British Columbia. Door knocking was allowed.
My mandate is not to oversee campaigning. However, I was in close contact with the chief medical health officer. He asked for guidance with respect to how to proceed. In the end, we determined that Ministry of Health guidance would supersede anything that I would put forward.
Some general principles were there. We didn't have any general problems. Certainly there weren't large gatherings of any sort, but door knocking was allowed to proceed in the same way that other similar activities were allowed to proceed, such as door-to-door sales.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you, Dr. Boda. Thank you, Madame Normandin.
Mr. Blaikie, you have six minutes.
November 3rd, 2020 / 11:35 a.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you, and thank you to both our witnesses. I know elections don't end on election day and that you're both very busy, so we appreciate your time here.
On the theme of political parties, do you think it would be useful for there to be some kind of advisory committee consisting of a member or representative from the registered parties, someone from the elections authority and someone from the public health authority, in order to be able to discuss campaigning methods and the public health risks that can arise?
I believe that they have a body like that in British Columbia. We heard from the chief medical officer in British Columbia that it was a useful body. I'd like to get your own respective opinions about that.
Let's start with Mr. Boda and then go to Mr. Boegman.
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Saskatchewan
There were a variety of mechanisms by which I sought input with respect to the political actors. I do work closely with our six registered political parties and receive input from them.
Leading up to the election, however, we established what was called the electoral advisory group, which was constituted of myself as chair, the chief medical health officer, and the two House leaders from the Legislative Assembly. We met once a month in order to discuss the current situation with COVID-19 and some of the challenges related to campaigning, for example. In the end, the decisions that were made were mine, but I was seeking advice, particularly from the chief medical health officer and from the two House leaders as well. That was the process.
11:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
Yes, you're correct. There is established in our legislation an election advisory committee that is represented by two members from each political party that has members in the House or has campaigned in 50% or more of the seats in the province. There is a legislative requirement to formally consult with this committee on certain things—for example, for recommendations for legislative change—but I also use the body as a forum to discuss other aspects of electoral administration and to share best practices.
During the summer prior to our election call, as part of our readiness activities, I facilitated a meeting of this committee with the provincial and deputy provincial health officers, specifically to talk about campaigning. As Dr. Boda mentioned, I don't have a mandate to oversee the campaign activities, but I felt it important to bring together the parties as well as the medical health experts to talk about the issues and the challenges and how typical campaign activities should be modified to meet the public health requirements. The parties then submitted to the medical health officer their safety plans for commentary.
We also took the information that we had discussed and disseminated it on a broader base to all of the smaller political parties in British Columbia so that everyone was up to speed on what the changes were.
To summarize, I found it very effective and very helpful in discussing the issues and making sure that the information was being shared.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you.
In your opening comments, I think you both alluded to working with specific communities such as first nations communities, but I'm also thinking of other populations that might have challenges when it comes to voting, particularly in a pandemic context, such as people living with disabilities, seniors and students, who may not have all the campus voting options that they're used to.
I'm wondering if you can help explain any risks that you saw that may not have come to fruition in terms of certain populations being disenfranchised during a pandemic election. What are some of those risks, and what were some of the best practices that you found could mitigate those risks?
Maybe we'll start with Mr. Boegman this time, and then go to Mr. Boda.
11:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections BC
This will build from my comments during my opening statement, because I did see that as a particular challenge in providing safe and accessible opportunities to at-risk voters and unique communities.
Many of our first nations communities, as an example, were isolating and continue to isolate, so trying to make contact with them to establish the best way to provide voting and to have a range of accessible options that could meet their needs was essential to be able to provide voting.
It was certainly a challenge, additionally because of the nature of the election in British Columbia. It was a snap election. It was not held on a fixed date, and as a result, it was challenging to get the attention of people in some communities in relation to election plans when it wasn't necessarily the first thing on their horizon. We put a lot of effort into how we were going to administer voting for remote communities.
We were also thinking about situations such as deployed military personnel. There was a warship—I believe it was HMCS Winnipeg—that was at sea when the election was called and was not going to be coming into port before voting day. We were able to use operator-assisted telephone voting, which is in place under the special voting rules in British Columbia, to provide an opportunity for the deployed sailors to cast their ballots.
In summary, it takes a lot of communication and planning, and you need to have a flexible tool kit to be able to meet the unique circumstances of communities and be able to adapt if their situation should change.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you, Mr. Boegman.
That's all we have for this round. Next we have—
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
I have a quick point of order, Madam Chair.
Before we continue, I'd like to ask that, if possible, Mr. Blaikie stop the crackling of his listening device. Interpreters cannot translate what is being said.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
I did just try unplugging and plugging it in again, so I hope I'm coming through more clearly now.