Mr. Chair, thank you, and I'll try to be brief. I won't introduce my colleagues, two of whom were here for the previous hour, but our colleague, Rachel Pereira, who is the director of the electoral and senatorial policy unit at Privy Council, has joined us.
Mr. Chair, this is to discuss with your committee Bill C-65, the electoral participation act.
As members know, in my mandate letter, I was tasked with reviewing the Chief Electoral Officer’s recommendations; strengthening safeguards against foreign interference and disinformation; and examining the link between technology and democracy in order to protect Canada’s elections and democratic institutions. Bill C‑65, which is before you, is the culmination of these three priorities. It proposes, among other things, two additional advance polling days, improvements to the special ballot voting process and making the popular vote on campus program permanent.
I am very proud, as the member for Beauséjour, to represent New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University in Sackville. During elections, I see students proudly voting at their campus polling stations. We want to make this opportunity permanent.
However, election day still remains the single most popular and traditional way for Canadians to vote. For that reason our government in Bill C-65 proposed to move the October 2025 fixed election date by one week forward to avoid a conflict with Diwali and certain municipal elections in provinces like Alberta.
That being said, I've certainly taken note of comments from colleagues and I'm happy to reiterate the comments I made at the second reading debate that the government will of course happily respect the will of this committee should there be a desire to amend the legislation and move the date forward even further, or move it back to October 20. I'm happy to see the work of this committee.
I trust that we can move forward on the many important amendments proposed in this bill that we think improve safeguards for our elections. Take, for example, the proposed improvements for long-term care residents and persons with disabilities, which seeks to give electors the ability to select an individual to assist them. This was recommended by the Chief Electoral Officer with the existing integrity measures in place. I think of persons in my riding who may have limited reading skills who may want a trusted person with them to help them ensure that in fact they're casting the vote for the person they intend to vote for.
The second priority of Bill C-65 is the protection of personal information. This legislation proposes new privacy policy requirements as a condition of registration for federal political parties, with the Canada Elections Act continuing to be a national, uniform and exclusive regime for federal political parties dealings with personal information.
Finally, and this is an important one that picks up on our previous discussion, Bill C-65 proposes a number of measures to continue to meet the evolving threats of foreign interference and disinformation. This would be done through measures that would, for example, extend the existing bans on foreign influence and misleading publications so that they apply at all times and not just during the election period, and add a new ban to protect against intentional disinformation about candidates and the facts of our electoral process, such as polling locations and the mechanics of the electoral process.
Protecting elections in Canada should never be a partisan issue. Bill C‑65 includes many important measures Canadians want to see implemented before the next election.
I hope that as parliamentarians, we can work together and improve the bill, as we should.
It may be up to your committee to assess the importance of passing this bill. It will ensure accessible and transparent Canadian elections that are able to withstand the threats weighing on our democracy.
I see you shaking your head, Mr. Chair. You probably want to tell me that you would like for me to wrap up the absolutely extraordinary remarks I just shared with you.
I would be pleased to answer my colleagues’ questions.