Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Boda.

Madame Normandin, you have two and a half minutes.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

My question is for both witnesses.

You both mentioned that employees were younger this year. Did you have to set criteria yourself to avoid employing people who were more at risk, or did it just happen on its own, naturally?

I'd like you to start, Mr. Boda.

[Michael Boda]

Yes, I did spend a lot of time messaging in advance that it was quite likely that some of our older workers who had traditionally worked for us would not be able to work for us because of COVID-19 and the concerns over a health hazard.

As a result, I focused very much on messaging to the public that we needed workers, so that new individuals who hadn't thought about participating and giving back to their democracy would become involved. We did see, anecdotally, a lower age come forward.

One of the things that we did in advance of the outbreak of COVID-19 was change the legislation so that 16- to 18-year-olds could participate as workers. As a result, we initiated what was called the Youth to the Booth program, and we saw a significant increase in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds who participated.

I had asked for school not to be held on election day, and that was the case across the province. As a result, students were able to participate in this way.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to hear Mr. Boegman's answer, please.

[Anton Boegman]

We also had a youth at the booth program that we piloted first in 2017 and reused for this election. It focused on using high school students and university students as election workers.

We didn't do any specific outreach of the kind Dr. Boda mentioned. In fact, our experience was that once the election was called, there were many expressions of interest coming in via our website to our central human resources department and into district offices, once they were open, from people who wanted to work as election workers or as office staff during the pandemic, so we did not have challenges in terms of numbers.

Anecdotally, as I mentioned, I believe the numbers skewed younger in terms of percentages. The challenge was more in trying to hire and train all those staff, especially considering our processes and the timeline. We were training them in smaller groups because they had to be distanced and our proper safety protocols had to be followed in organizing the training of election workers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Boegman.

Next we have Mr. Blaikie for two and a half minutes.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much.

I want to come back to the question of groups that had particular challenges in voting and provide Mr. Boda with an opportunity to share his experience.

If you need me to elaborate on that question a little bit, I'm happy to do that, but if not, I'd rather just give you the extra time.

[Michael Boda]

Thank you.

As you know, under normal circumstances, an election management body's job is not necessarily to get the vote out—at least, not in Saskatchewan. It is to reduce barriers for all voters so that they have access to the ballot. That's something we've worked on for many years in the province.

With COVID-19, however, public health became the primary issue. Our slogan was “Voting safely is our priority”. We were very focused on this point.

Then we had concerns about some groups who might not have been able to participate in the same way because we had to focus so much on making sure the polls were safe. We obviously do a lot of work with first nations. We have 72 first nations across our province. We also worked with accessibility groups, students and seniors, and in that context we were doing everything we could to give them access while still maintaining the priorities of the public health authorities. I can tell you that it was challenging.

The first thing I would think about is our first nations. There were a number of lockdowns, and I was working very closely with the chiefs and their councils in order to determine how we would get the ballots to them if we couldn't have a poll on the first nation. A lot of effort went into that. There's no question that it's difficult in a COVID-19 context.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Were there any particular things you learned in the process of working with first nations that you found helpful, that you would want Elections Canada and the members of this committee to be aware of, that we might be able to recommend that Elections Canada get started on now in order to be able to have as smooth a process as possible for the federal election, whenever it may occur?

[Michael Boda]

I have read Mr. Perrault's report, and one of the things being asked for is that he be able to adapt the process. That was something I was provided with through regulatory changes. I would be allowed to adapt the process. I wasn't allowed to change the process. I think that was the line where it proved to be difficult to serve first nations in some cases. Because I could not change the process, I had to consistently look at how I could adapt the process in order to serve them better.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Boda.

Next we have Mr. Lukiwski for five minutes, please.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to both of our witnesses for being here today, and thank you for your service to Canada.

Since I'm a Saskatchewan boy, I'm going to concentrate all my remarks on Mr. Boda.

Specifically, in your opening comments you mentioned that the voter turnout in Saskatchewan in the most recent election was 52%, which compares favourably to the previous election in 2016, when the voter turnout was 54%. Due to the fact that we were voting in the midst of a pandemic, I suppose that 2% decline in voter turnout was actually a good thing.

However, frankly, I'm extremely concerned, and have been for many years, about the steady decline in voter turnout across Canada. Perhaps I have the benefit of the wisdom of my years in that I can remember back to elections 30, 40 or perhaps even 50 years ago, when it was not uncommon to see election turnout, whether provincially or federally, at 70% or higher.

Particularly in light of the unprecedented number of voters apparently turning out for the U.S. election, what steps do you think could be taken to increase voter turnout, generally speaking? I recognize that it's not the primary mandate of your office to be concerned about voter turnout, but certainly you would have a role to play.

What do you think could be and perhaps should be done in the future to try to increase the level of voter turnout in our province?

[Michael Boda]

Being from Saskatchewan, you will know that while my office's mandate is really focused on barriers to voting and on how we can lower those barriers for everyone, I have also done a fair amount of writing on this topic, in op-eds and elsewhere, to voice my concern about that diminished turnout rate. My answer is that while I'm focused on barriers, I also want to work together with other stakeholders, including political parties, civil society, academics and thought leaders to increase voter turnout.

I as well remember those days. There were higher turnout rates in Saskatchewan. That rate has been consistently dropping. However, for the last two elections, we've been over the 50% mark, so I think we might have slowed it down, but we need to work together, and not just the election management body. It's not its role to get the turnout rate up; it's to work together in order to move forward. That's how I've been approaching it here in Saskatchewan, and my hope, moving forward, is that we will be able to increase that turnout rate.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Frankly, as I mentioned in my comments, I've seen that steady decline over the years. I've always thought it would be a tragedy—and I'm choosing my words carefully here—to, in the future, have as low as 30% or 40% of Canadians electing their national government or provincial government. To me that's just unacceptable.

I think we need to have a concentrated push. I agree with your assessment that we need other stakeholders to become involved, but I would also suggest, Dr. Boda, that it should be, in my opinion at least, a primary function of your office to take a lead role in working cohesively with other stakeholders—other political parties, for example, or civil liberty groups—to increase voter turnout.

Could you give me some more specificity about some of the things that you've done in the past or would like to do in the future to make sure all Canadians and all people within each province of this great country of ours are committed to voting and to recognizing that voting is a fundamental right and privilege that we should observe, and that we should get out to the polls every time and any time an election is called? What would you do specifically?

[Michael Boda]

What I would suggest is that we be very careful not to place the responsibility on the election management body for increasing the level of turnout. I think academics and thought leaders across the country will tell you that it would be a losing effort.

However, here in Saskatchewan, my goal and my approach has been to bring in those other stakeholders within civil society. I think we do need to get serious about this, given the level of turnout. I would bring them in and formalize the process, but while the election management body is taking leadership, I would not suggest that it be the only actor in the space. Really, political parties are significant actors in this role, but it goes beyond this; it goes to the academy and it goes to other civil society organizations.

Perhaps a formalization of the process with the goal of increasing turnout would be important, but I would repeat that an election management body just doesn't have the capacity to increase that turnout. It can work on its main mandate, and that is to reduce barriers for all voters.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Boda.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor is next, please, for five minutes.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

As well, thank you to both of you for being here and for your service to our country.

Your testimony today has been very helpful. It will certainly help us during the process of putting together a report.

Mr. Boegman, in your opening statement I believe that you indicated that it was critical to make sure we educate our voters, our scrutineers and our stakeholders to ensure they have confidence and trust in our electoral process. I'm wondering about your education campaign, your advertising campaign. What did it consist of to make sure we could instill that trust within those individuals?

[Anton Boegman]

I think it was Dr. Boda who had that statement in his opening comments, but I'd be very happy to just speak at a very high level about our processes.

As I mentioned before, it was a snap election in British Columbia. We did not have the usual opportunity to do outreach and education with the various stakeholder groups during the lead-up.

Right after the election was called, I held a joint press conference with our provincial health officer. Obviously, she was speaking to the safety aspects and the public health aspects, but I was speaking about the process. I was speaking about trying to be as transparent as possible, about what options voters would have and about our safety plans, emphasizing strongly that while voting would be similar, it would also be different, but that the differences would be what people had already come to expect when going to a grocery store or picking up a cup of takeout coffee or that sort of thing.

We really focused initially and then, through our advertising campaign and through our media outreach during the campaign period, on safe voting, as well as being very transparent about communication. It was very different in terms of the large numbers voting by mail, so we made sure that we published the requests we had received and the numbers of packages that had been issued across electoral districts throughout the campaign period.

It was the same thing the day before election day. We held another press conference to describe what the process would be going forward through the final count so that voters, media and political participants were very aware about how the process would unfold and about what information would be available, and when, to make sure they understood the process and therefore had trust in the process.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you so much.

Dr. Boda, would you comment as well on your comments that you had made earlier? My apologies for that.

[Michael Boda]

It's not a problem.

As I mentioned, “Voting safely is our priority” was part of our advertising campaign from the very beginning. We had the advantage of having an election date set in legislation, unlike in B.C. We began that campaign on August, 15 and it was integrated into everything that we advertised.

That was the formal approach. We also had an informal approach, in that each time I was speaking to stakeholders or to the media, I emphasized the fact that the polls were safe. We did this intentionally, because we had to balance the system to make sure that it wouldn't be undermined. For example, if people were not confident in the polls being safe, they might move over to voting by mail and overwhelm the system to the point that it would shut down. We had done a lot of research in the United States, Australia and South Korea in order to determine how we would most effectively move forward with respect to balancing that system and making sure that people knew they would be safe at the polls.

We also had to make sure it was safe at the polls. We did a lot of heavy lifting in that regard to make sure that we were meeting the standards of the chief medical health officer.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I'll ask very quickly, because my time is limited. Canada is such a huge country, and we certainly recognize that the reality of COVID-19 is different from coast to coast to coast. I come from Atlantic Canada. The matter is quite contained at this point, so it wouldn't be considered a hot spot, while perhaps Winnipeg would be considered a hot spot.

Did your communication strategy change within your province to address specific messaging for specific hot spot areas?

[Michael Boda]

Saskatchewan is perhaps a microcosm of Canada in that it is very diverse as well. Overall, we did have one single message that was going out to voters across the province. As time moved on, we had to adapt.

For example, with the Peter Ballantyne first nation, we had to direct our campaign specifically at that geographical area. We did that in different ways. We used local media, but we also used the SaskAlert texting system when things changed very quickly. Being nimble was very important with respect to our election management body.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Boda.

Mrs. Vecchio, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

Going off of what Ginette was saying, the fact is that Canada is so vast. Across this country, we're seeing a variety of different things.

I'll start off with Mr. Boegman. I'm from a smaller community. In my riding, I have a community called Aylmer. Right now we've seen a huge number of cases in that area. When we're looking at it, a lot of times we'll talk about places like Toronto, but even smaller communities have seen larger numbers. We know that may cause fear for others to go out.

Did you have any plans on how you would deal with small community outbreaks where there may not be two or three larger centres, so that people could vote? If anything unexpected happened in those last couple of weeks and all of a sudden something changed, how you would respond? Did you have quick action plan for those types of things?

[Anton Boegman]

Thank you for that question.

We did. As I mentioned in my opening comments, having administrative flexibility as an election body was critical to enabling us to effectively respond to changing circumstances and new outbreaks.

We had three models for voting or for serving isolated communities. One was vote-by-mail, which was available, and no excuses. Anyone could use vote-by-mail. We also targeted certain communities where that entire group could all order vote-by-mail packages collectively, rather than individually, through the website or through our 1-800 number, and we would then send them to those communities.

Having the ability to use operator-assisted telephone voting was extremely valuable in those late-breaking situations. A first nations community went into isolation for an outbreak within the last three days of the campaign period. We were going to be sending a team in there with full protective gear, but with those changing circumstances, we were able to pivot. We used operator-assisted telephone voting to provide those voters with an opportunity to cast their ballot.

Having that administrative flexibility is critical, because there's no time in a fixed election campaign to try to put in place something that is not ready to go.