Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Sept. 26th, 2024

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

You've provided us with the temporary variations for the Canada Elections Act. You mentioned that once you've met with PROC and with the Senate committee, it wouldn't be an instant implementation. Are there additional requirements for you to come back to committee before you can proceed with it, or would you just be able to go along, continue the process and hopefully be ready for the next election?

[Stéphane Perrault]

The only circumstance where I would need to come back is if the Senate were to require something different as a condition that would vary from your approval. I would then have to come back to this committee.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

My colleague, MP Fortier, has a question, so I'll cede my time to her.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, esteemed colleague.

Mr. Perrault, thank you very much for this initiative. Obviously, I was not part of the studies or discussions on this. My riding of Ottawa—Vanier has a huge Inuit community, and they still have an address in Iqaluit. I can imagine that they will want to vote on election day or vote on a special ballot that will be sent to their electoral district.

In other ridings, are we ready to welcome those who will want to exercise their right to vote as part of this pilot project?

[Stéphane Perrault]

Some people's usual place of residence is Nunavut, but they are in Ottawa for all kinds of reasons. There's a pretty good Inuit community in Ottawa. These individuals have the right to vote in Nunavut. They will be able to obtain the form and related instructions online. There are paper copies of those instructions for those who wish to receive the package that will enable them to vote in the language of their choice at that time.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I find that interesting, because I will be able to take part in the pilot project myself when the time comes. In the next election, I will make sure that the local offices in Ottawa are ready for this practice. I hope to be able to take part on the ground and inform those who want to vote about the process.

[Stéphane Perrault]

I just want to qualify that. People who are not in Nunavut, that is to say outside the electoral district, will have to apply online. We're not going to equip all districts.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Okay.

I imagine a phone number will be made available to these individuals in case they have questions about this. It would be good to share that information with them.

[Stéphane Perrault]

Yes, a phone number will be provided.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Ms. Romanado and Ms. Fortier.

Thank you, Mr. Perrault.

I will note that until the recent by-elections, my by-election of last year held the record for the longest ballot, with 48 names. They've since doubled that, so I'm no longer a record holder, I suppose, in that regard.

Ms. Gaudreau, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's always a great pleasure to have you here, Mr. Perrault. It is important to have a good grasp of the situation. I, for one, am constantly learning about these things.

To be honest, I have to say that I had a few questions, but my colleagues have already asked them all. However, I have taken note of the request that the decision be made quickly, given the circumstances. Our concern, at least mine, is that you have everything you need to carry out this initiative given what might happen anytime.

Are there any challenges that have not been raised and that could give us the opportunity to help you if that situation were to materialize soon, and should we support the project?

[Stéphane Perrault]

The challenges are those specific to a new initiative. We'll take a look at them. I think we've done everything we can to understand the situation. We've consulted with people, including Elections Nunavut, but there are always situations that we don't anticipate. That's why it's a good thing it's a pilot project. It's also why I intend to conduct an evaluation of the pilot project with the communities afterwards. There will be focus groups, and they will share with us their impressions of their experience.

As I said earlier, the situation is not exactly the same as it is in the territories, since we don't have a candidate in each community. There are also language variations. So we will learn from this exercise and make the necessary adjustments.

One of the challenges is that it's very hard to withdraw a service offering once it has been provided. This is not a permanent service. The act would have to be amended to make it permanent. I hope that happens and that it’ll be done fairly quickly after the next election so that we don’t end up in a situation where this service is offered, and then we stop providing it after the next election.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I understand what you have just told us, and I think that all my colleagues have taken note of those comments.

There's a lot of time left, and I don't want to monopolize if I don't have to. However, I would like to know how things work in a large territory.

Could you explain the process to me a little and tell me if there are any differences?

[Stéphane Perrault]

It's quite a unique reality. I think most Canadians don't have the opportunity to appreciate just how many differences there are between electoral districts. In terms of geography alone, we're talking about approximately two million square kilometres.

To put things in perspective, I would point out that, in the territories—and I'm not including water here—the area is about the same as western Europe. There are 25 communities. I'm unsure of the exact number, but I believe that Elections Nunavut has 25 or 23 returning officers in the communities. We have only one. Obviously, that requires it to maintain ties with the community.

The fact remains that these are quite extraordinary challenges in terms of logistics and fast deployment, especially when it comes to printing ballots on time for advance polls. Printing is not done in Nunavut because of the specific requirements for ballots under federal legislation. So they have to be dealt with on the night nominations close. Nunavut is the priority. We need to finish the review that evening to make sure that printing and distribution can be done in time for the advance polls.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

That's very interesting.

That's it for me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Okay, thank you.

Next is Ms. Idlout.

Lori, it's really nice to have you here. You can certainly offer a unique perspective on this.

The floor is yours for six minutes.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik, Iksivautaq.

Thank you, Stéphane and Karine. It's nice to see you both again. I caught one of your focus groups in Iqaluit, so it's nice to see some of the results of what you've been trying to do in helping to make sure Inuktitut-speaking and -reading people can be more engaged in the federal election process. I appreciate all of the efforts you've made.

I want to ask some questions that would help give some context to what my experience has been, so more parliamentarians can understand some of the challenges you're talking about—and opportunities, even. Having been a territory since 1999, Nunavut has been holding elections for some years now. Having been from NWT before Nunavut became a territory, with the NWT electoral system as well, I understand that providing ballots in more than four languages is also a possibility.

I wonder if you could explain to the committee whether you've consulted with NWT on what they're doing. They have 11 official languages.

[Stéphane Perrault]

Yes, we have. My colleague here has been in regular contact with our friends at Elections NWT.

One of the things we have been doing, with their assistance, is translating more of the products into various languages. There are, as you said, 11 official languages there. Those will be found on site at polling locations in order to make the voting experience more inclusive and reflective of the linguistic reality.

We have a very good working relationship with our colleagues there.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you for that.

You mentioned during your speech that it will not be possible to fully incorporate Inuktitut into all electoral information products, such as election results.

I wonder if you could describe for us what the challenges are in making sure that Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun can appear in other electoral information products.

[Stéphane Perrault]

The choice we made is because of timing. We don't know when the election will take place, and we do not want to invest in changing all of our IT systems until we have a satisfactory experience and the agreement of Parliament to make this a permanent service offering. It's a compromise.

However, from a voter experience point of view, voters will see the ballot and products at the polling station in their language.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I'm wondering if there are barriers in the current legislation.

As you mentioned, the printing of the ballots happens outside of Nunavut. Are there barriers in the legislation that prevent the ballots from being printed in Nunavut communities?

[Stéphane Perrault]

The ballot, as designed in the Elections Act, requires a counterfoil and a stub that can be turned. There are a limited number of printers that can offer that type of printing. This is not unique, in fact, to Nunavut. We have a limited number of printers that serve all of Canada.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

You seem to understand that Nunavut is vast. As you mentioned, it's two million square miles. There are three time zones in Nunavut. All 25 communities are fly-in communities.

Would you agree that ensuring that printing can happen in Nunavut could help lessen that barrier?

[Stéphane Perrault]

I would answer in two ways.

I have the power, under the act, to make certain adaptations. For a stopgap measure, we always typically allow for the possibility of printing copies of the ballot locally, without the stub and counterfoil, irrespective of what we're talking about here today in terms of languages. That's simply because there's a risk—weather or other circumstances—that we cannot get the ballot into some fly-in communities in time. There's always a stopgap measure. In that case, with adaptation of the legislation, the vote can proceed with, essentially, copied ballots, which are hand-numbered. We haven't had to use it, but it's always very close.

For a more fulsome solution, the alternative is to remove the counterfoil requirement. This is something unique at the federal level, to my knowledge. Provinces and territories do not have that element in their ballot format. That's something that brings a broader series of considerations to the table.