Evidence of meeting #13 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We'll have to decide which languages, among the many, we are going to do this in, to begin with. There's the translation time and the production of the physical material time. It's not extremely long. This is something that we can do.
Liberal
Jennifer O'Connell Liberal Pickering—Uxbridge, ON
Again, Madam Chair, that's my question. What's your timeline to do it?
If you're deciding.... I don't understand. I understand production time. Even in elections, we have a short window and I have to print materials and things like that, but this was an area that was raised.
How long will it take for Elections Canada to determine these other materials? What languages are you going to produce them in, and then what is the print time, so that, should an election be called at any moment, you have these materials?
My colleague made the point that there are certain materials that do not change—outside of ballots—every year. In what timeline will you have those materials in specific regions that need them? When will you make the determination of the languages? When will they be printed and ready to go to be shipped out at a moment's notice of an election?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Madam Chair, I don't have the answer to that, specifically. As I said, I have a team that's being set up to look at a range of issues. This will be one of the issues that they will be looking at.
I don't expect that it will take an extraordinary amount of time to decide which will be the priority products and the priority languages, but they will evolve over time. What we have if there's an election next fall may be different from what we have if there's an election in 2025.
Liberal
Jennifer O'Connell Liberal Pickering—Uxbridge, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to have some timelines communicated back to this committee. If you have a team coming forward.... I'm going to use that “vote” sign. I don't see why an election next fall versus an election in three years would change the timelines around the production of a “vote” sign, but I'm going to leave that there, because I think the point is made.
Elections Canada has additional panels set up. In terms of these committees or this panel, first, are you going to set up a formal panel, Madam Chair? Secondly, what is going to be constituted in this?
We look at things like the situation in Kenora, and what specifically happened there. You touched on advance polls, but Elections Canada has already had some flexibility in having advance polls. They weren't always executed or taken in the last election. In one of the media responses...and I think even in your last testimony before this committee, you said that you weren't aware of those issues at the time. It seems like there's no rapid response team to be able to address it in a riding or a polling station and feed it up to somebody in such a way that it can actually be addressed before election day.
Is this going to be part of any look ahead? Are you going to do town halls in these communities to find out what the issues were?
I promise I'm wrapping up, Madam Chair.
What I've heard a lot today is that you “haven't heard that yet”. I'm wondering if you are going to go there to speak to the people who have been impacted.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Madam Chair, many points have been raised here, and I'm not sure I have them all down.
Rapid response is an important issue, as is understanding when to brief up to headquarters and the CEO. I'm doing regional meetings across the country starting next week and in all of May. It is one of the topics I'll be discussing with returning officers. We need to make sure we understand clearly what the issues are that need to be briefed up.
The issue in Kenora was partly that problem—that there was no briefing up and we were not aware—and partly a problem of planning. We need to plan in advance, not just responsively, Madam Chair, for those single days of advance polls. Normally, it's four days. The legislation was changed just before the previous election.
Our focus in this election was on pandemic measures, but we need to look at how we can use that, not just responsively when there's an issue, but in a planned way to increase advance polls and reduce the necessity of making last-minute changes, which are so problematic.
It's a two-track answer, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bardish Chagger
Thank you for that exchange.
Mr. Fergus, thank you for sharing your time with Ms. O'Connell.
I think you're right; there are two tracks. You have the things that are not going to change. The “vote today” is a sign that's been around since...I'm not even sure how long, but I've always seen it. We can be prepared for some things. With other things that change, I can understand where the challenge would occur. That's just an understanding of things that don't change. Have we started planning to get those prepared? Maybe we're planning on saying something other than “vote today” at some point, which I don't see us doing, but maybe there's a different vision.
That was a very thorough and exciting exchange. Thank you.
Ms. Gill, you now have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I will ask two final questions. I would like to ask more, but I only have time for two.
My first question will be about thresholds.
We talked about the 1% threshold. We'll see how the pilot projects and consultations go, but I'd like to know if it would be possible to include people who are relearning their language in that 1%. These would be people for whom the language is not their first language, but who say they are learning it.
Would this be possible?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I don't think so, Madam Chair. I'm not even sure that Statistics Canada has that data.
The problem is access to sources. We have data from Statistics Canada for certain categories, but those are not there.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There is the matter of the threshold, but also the matter of maximum languages, as I mentioned earlier. If five languages meet the threshold, should we include all five languages?
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
I would like to ask another question, Mr. Perreault. I only have two and a half minutes.
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
We are talking about the quantitative aspect, but you said that there was also the qualitative aspect. I would like to know what these qualitative criteria are that you were referring to.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
All this shows the need for discussions outside of election periods. These are not things that can be decided within an electoral calendar. Returning officers need to be able to have conversations with community representatives to understand their needs in advance, in order to prepare for this.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
If we talk about quantity and add quality to it, then it also changes that 1% figure.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Yes. I'm using the 1% as a barometer, because it was in a bill. I mention it to provide a frame of reference.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I refer to it also as it tends to reflect quite closely the languages we use in our information materials. I'm not saying that we will necessarily use this criterion for pilot projects.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bardish Chagger
As you can see, I always give you time, because you ask good questions. We also want to get good answers.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
You are very generous, Madam Chair. I think I've gone over my time on a few occasions.
Thank you.