Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 31st, 2024

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

Thank you so much.

With an aging population, we anticipate that we're going to have more and more folks who will be needing assistance in terms of voting. Can you agree that this would be an accurate statement?

[Allen Sutherland]

Yes, we can.

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

One of the other areas we were talking about is the vote on campus program. Previous to my election, I worked in higher education at McGill University and at a local CEGEP. To engage young people to vote, I was on the electoral reform committee. I can talk about that for days, but one of the things we heard is that when people vote at a very young age, they're more likely to continue to vote.

How will this help to assist those who are studying in university and maybe are not in their hometowns to exercise their right to vote and to continue to do that along their journey while they're in school? Can you elaborate a bit on that?

[Allen Sutherland]

Yes, and I agree with the premise of your question. One of the things we talk about in the democratic institutions secretariat is that developing the habit of voting builds on itself.

It speaks to earlier changes to the electoral act, where we have a registry of young people about to turn 18. This vote on campus feature and putting it in concrete in legislation is a very promising part of the current proposed bill. In 2019, when we at Elections Canada last had the vote on campus feature, some 110,000 young people voted in some 120 or so institutions. I think we can build on that.

Just speaking to your original sentiment, people need to acquire the habit. There's no point in having a democracy unless you have people who exercise their democratic rights. This is a way of building it in and making it easier for young people to vote and to build those good habits.

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

On the additional days for voting, we know that not everyone takes advantage of advance polling and so on, and some folks, for whatever reason, wait for election day. Whether it be because of bad weather, traffic, professional obligations, travel or so on and so forth, not everyone has the ability to do their electoral duty on election day.

How will this help others have the flexibility to increase their participation in our democratic institutions?

[Allen Sutherland]

I think you said it very well. It just provides greater flexibility to folks. The proof of the pudding's in the eating.

In the last election, 34% of Canadians exercised their franchise in advance polls. That's been rising at a very high rate. We could see a future, with these two more advance polls, in which up to a majority of Canadians exercise their franchise earlier. That's a very important part of trying to get the participation rate up.

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

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mrs. Romanado.

Welcome to the committee, Mrs. Gill. You have the floor for six minutes.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the committee for having me. I also want to thank Mr. Sutherland and Ms. Pereira for their testimony.

Mr. Sutherland, one of the ideas underlying the reform of the Act in Bill C‑65 is to increase accessibility. You cited a number of measures at the beginning of the meeting. Do you think that someone who might not be able to vote on a particular day would be able to exercise their right to vote at another time? This may seem pretty basic, but it's a straightforward question.

[Allen Sutherland]

Thank you for the question.

There are a variety of ways in which Elections Canada continues to work to make voting more accessible. Additional advance polling days are one of them. Making the polls themselves accessible is another. A third is improving the vote-by-mail system, which allows Canadians to exercise their franchise in a different way. These are all....

I'm sorry.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I didn't mean to cut you off. I was just going to agree that there are three ways for us to exercise our right to vote.

The Bloc Québécois has questions about the proposed date, and I will come back to that later. However, I think we could agree that no one would be adversely affected and that everyone could vote, regardless of the date of a general election, could we not?

Furthermore, if someone wanted to celebrate Diwali, with all these other options, including advance polling, the measure would not be necessary for them to exercise their right to vote. Is that correct?

[Allen Sutherland]

I understand what you're saying, and I appreciate what you're saying. I would hesitate to tell a Canadian they can't vote on election day—

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Okay.

[Allen Sutherland]

—but they can vote five days earlier. I don't know what their—

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

It's a mathematical possibility.

[Allen Sutherland]

Mathematical, yes.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Okay.

I could raise two other points about Diwali. The reason is that the Bloc Québécois advocates state secularism, the separation between religion and politics.

I think this will be more of a comment than a question. If that is the reason we are moving the election date, it confirms our sense that it shouldn't be moved. I've heard it from other members as well, but we obviously have questions about the fundamental reason for the date change. Are there other reasons, perhaps hidden ones that we are in the dark about?

Do you see any other arguments to justify the change? I ask because it seems that the Diwali argument is no longer valid. What other arguments could be made to change the date if, mathematically speaking—and I very clearly understood what you said—we didn't have to change it? Am I missing something?

[Allen Sutherland]

I think it's a question of making sure Canadians can exercise their franchise on the election date. The signal it sends to at least some part of the Canadian family is that the election date occurs during a time when they're in religious observance.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Your answer tells me that there is no other reason, because people can already exercise their right to vote. Thank you.

Do I have a little time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

You have one minute and 35 seconds.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I would like to come back to another topic that was also discussed.

In Quebec, there will be municipal elections next year. I want to come back to the issue of accessibility and being able to exercise our right to vote. We have even discussed cynicism about politics, which we would like to counter. In this case, the general election would coincide with municipal elections, which could cause confusion or fatigue among voters. There are a lot of theories to be made about that.

Is that something you took into consideration when you came up with these dates? Based on the objectives of the bill, do you think that could undermine the desired result?

[Rachel Pereira]

Thank you for the question.

Speaking to the issue of religious and cultural conflicts, I would note that the act currently accounts for conflicts with religious and cultural days of significance, and that the election date could be—

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I was actually talking about municipal elections in Quebec, whose date is going to conflict with that of the federal election. My question made no reference to religion.

[Rachel Pereira]

I apologize. That was on the previous question.

[Allen Sutherland]

I understand.