Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 12th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes, Mr. Tochor, I was just about to reply. We have no more time for this panel.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

I believe what was submitted to the clerk included a two-minute round for me.

Can the clerk confirm?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes. What was submitted would be Mr. Tochor and then Ms. Petitpas Taylor for five minutes each, but there is no more time in this panel, so we have to cut it off whenever the hour ends and move to our second panel.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

We have two minutes right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

You can talk to your Conservative members and maybe have yourself slotted in for one of the other panels.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

My question was for this panel, but all right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you so much, Mr. Lee and Ms. Duncan, for taking time today to be here with us. We want to make sure that our seniors and their civic rights are respected if an election were to occur.

Now, in the second panel, we have Amber Potts, a representative from the Assembly of First Nations.

We welcome you to this committee. You have approximately five minutes to make opening remarks. That will be followed by probably two rounds of questions from the different party members in this committee meeting.

Thank you, Ms. Potts. Go ahead.

[Amber Potts, Director of Policy and Research Coordination, Assembly of First Nations]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for inviting me to speak today. I'll try to go quickly through my remarks.

The Assembly of First Nations has worked closely with Elections Canada for a number of years to alleviate barriers to first nations' participation in the electoral system. In the wake of COVID-19, there are a number of new challenges to protecting the safety, rights, jurisdiction and opportunity to participate of first nations. However, many of these challenges are long standing and just exacerbated by the pandemic.

First nations have a long history of disenfranchisement by the federal government, but work is being done in coordination with the AFN to address the issues pertaining to elections. Indeed, first nations' right to vote was not recognized until 1951. This legacy and first nations' understandable mistrust of the colonial systems of governance are barriers to participation.

After a significant increase in first nations' participation in 2015, there was a large drop in the 2019 election. On-reserve registered electors in 2019 turned out at a rate of 53%, which is 14 points lower than the general population and nine points lower than the 2015 on-reserve turnout. This drop must not become a trend. First nations need to be able to participate in the federal electoral system to help shape the COVID-19 recovery. We've borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic and should have a leading voice in ensuring the recovery reaches our communities.

Elections Canada and the federal government need to ensure the safety of first nations communities when conducting an election. While I'm sure that considerations for mail-in voting have been made, first nations living in communities with different address systems or unique housing and living arrangements need to be considered when distributing and accepting mail-in ballots. This process needs to be clear and accessible.

As for polling on-reserve, the utmost priority needs to be placed on procuring the necessary supplies for a safe and sanitary voting environment for both staff and electors. First nations have dealt with the issues of procurement due to their remoteness or the cost, and this is a serious concern for us when it comes to a large-scale federal election that may come on short notice.

Preparations and training should be made at the earliest feasible time. A window of 30 or 40 days from writ drop to election day will mean there will be a lot of moving parts, and the COVID pandemic has shown that first nations are often an afterthought.

I want to touch on the importance of respecting first nations' jurisdiction in regard to polling stations on reserve and in outreach for our participation.

The COVID pandemic illustrated once again that there is a disconnect between federal, provincial, municipal and first nations' leadership on who determines safe practices within our communities. It needs to be clearly outlined by the federal government and by Elections Canada that first nations' leadership have the jurisdictional authority to say when something is unsafe or unwelcome in their communities.

In our most recent work with Elections Canada, we published a report with a number of recommendations, and I want to share a couple with you today because they remain relevant. Some of the key recommendations that can be implemented relatively quickly are introducing self-identification options in Elections Canada hiring and application processes to better gauge first nations representation and access to paid employment positions offered by Elections Canada during an election. Another recommendation is ensuring that staff running polling stations are adequately trained on acceptable forms of ID. There was evidence that polling stations staff turned away first nations voters who had adequate ID in 2019. Of course, we can't know if this was an act of individual racism or if it has to do with training. We ask you to ensure that there is access to polling stations on-reserve where requested. In 2019 some first nations were refused polling stations.

When it comes to sharing information among staff about acceptable forms of ID, there must be training for Elections Canada officials on the history of disenfranchisement and the importance of first nations' participation. First nations should be hired to staff polling stations and other vital Elections Canada positions. These are relatively impactful yet easy options to ensure participation.

Ultimately, first nations need to be a part of the federal electoral process, should we choose to engage. First nations have felt the impacts of disenfranchisement and the pandemic deeply. We cannot let COVID-19 exacerbate the issue.

First nations need to be able to have a say in the direction the federal government takes in the COVID-19 recovery effort. That means ensuring our safe participation in the electoral process, ensuring the procurement of supplies for first nation polling stations, implementing AFN recommendations on reducing barriers to the federal electoral process, and doing so while respecting first nation jurisdictional authority will stem the possibility of first nation voices being stifled.

Thank you for allowing our participation today. I look forward to your questions.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Justin Vaive]

Members of the committee, we've just lost the chair temporarily. She is attempting to reconnect. If I could ask Mr. Doherty, as the vice-chair, to preside over the meeting until the chair is back, that would be great.

Mr. Doherty, are you there?

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

He probably would not be available right now. I know he's been in and out.

[The Clerk]

I can ask Mr. Therrien to take over, as he is the second vice-chair.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

So you want me to replace our chair.

[The Clerk]

Exactly.

You may give the floor to the next member on the list, Mr. Tochor.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Alain Therrien]

The floor goes to Mr. Tochor for the first six-minute round of questions.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Thank you very much, and thank you to our witnesses for appearing here today.

Ms. Potts, what would be the different challenges with regular on-reserve voting versus urban reserve voting?

[Amber Potts]

Thank you for the question.

Of course, there are fewer polling stations on reserves. There's the issue of remoteness for the people who have to travel long distances to get to a polling station. That's the obvious one that is top of my mind.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

What would be some of the challenges with elders, as you see it, versus average-aged individuals?

[Amber Potts]

Obviously elders are a critical concern in the context of in-person voting during a pandemic, because they're more at risk to contract the virus, but in regular elections their participation is challenging as well because they need support to get to the polling station. They may need language support; English may not be their first language. Their first nation language may be their only language, so issues of language, remoteness and the issues of accessibility with regard to disabilities are of course always a concern.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Thank you very much.

Also, can you just unpack a little bit your concerns about self-identification, or what you would like to see changed on that front?

[Amber Potts]

On the issues of identification, Elections Canada has really extensive lists of acceptable ID for people to participate in an election. However, we've seen anecdotal evidence that the polling station staff are not adequately trained on acceptable ID. So, a person who used their status care during the 2019 election, which is an acceptable form of ID, was not allowed to vote until that person, of course, challenged the election staff and was able to speak to the site manager. Then they were allowed to vote. Again, as I said in my remarks, it's not clear to us if this was an individual act of racism, or just inadequate training.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

I have a quick question on the election of chiefs. We've had a number of elections held on first nation reserves over the last nine months. Do you know of any reserves that are actually using mail-in ballots right now for those elections?

[Amber Potts]

I'm not aware.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] they're all in-person voting and, just as it is with anyone who is being introduced to a new method, there are going to be.... We just had a panel on seniors before you testified, and we were talking about how the tried-and-true paper ballot and pencil is the easiest way for seniors to cast their vote.

Would there be some trouble with mail-in ballots if reserve voting for chiefs and band councils is usually done in person? If they haven't utilized the mail-in ballot, there could be some challenges. Could you see that happening with our first nations across Canada as well?

[Amber Potts]

I don't know if I understand your question clearly, but I am aware that first nations have undertaken elections using protocols to prevent the spread of the virus and have done so successfully. I'm not aware that first nations use the mail-in ballot system [Technical difficulty—Editor]

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Yes. People could question the outcomes.

There are many first nations that for health reasons, unfortunately, aren't allowing people on their reserves. Would you be suggesting that these polling locations in the next federal election be managed totally by the community? How would you see this rolling out for reserves that aren't allowing non-members to enter that reserve?