Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 5th, 2024

[Robert Sampson]

Mr. Chair, the returning officer does not have the ability to compel a facility administrator to open up their facility for a poll. The numbers we shared with your colleague Mr. Berthold were that of about 5,000 facilities that were served, there were about 3.5% that did not wish to have a poll in their institution, which is about 187 or so across the country.

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

My last point is more of an Elections Canada returning officer piece.

In the event of an election being called and a long-term care home, for whatever reason, declines, it might be worthwhile for local candidates to know that proactively, to say that Dundas Manor decided they're not doing it because, say, they're undergoing construction. The point is just to be aware (a) that we have extra work to do to get electors to a different spot or—I'll be respectful in the democratic process and the neutrality—(b) a pressure to say, really, there's no other way, that this could work.

That proactive communication and not getting to a final list being posted and, all of a sudden, there might be two or three long-term care homes that are under construction, there's something...and just to provide us ample time for our efforts to get out the vote for electors and to perhaps—I'll again be respectful of my wording—a reconfirmation or a pressure to say, really, there's no other way that this could work.

I'll leave that as more of a note for Elections Canada.

[Robert Sampson]

That's noted, and thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Cooper is next.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses.

I want to follow up with some of the questions that were posed to Elections Canada by my colleague Mr. Berthold. He asked the question about an analysis with respect to staffing at these additional polling stations. I think it's straightforward, but I just want to get it on the record that during the last election there were significant staffing challenges to see that all polling locations were properly staffed.

I recognize that it was a unique time. I don't believe ever in Canadian history have we had an election like the 2021 election in the midst of a pandemic. Hopefully, we won't have an election like that again.

Of course, it could have been avoided had the Prime Minister not decided to call an election to shut down the former Speaker of the House, the then Speaker of the House, whom he was taking to court to block the order of the House to produce all of the documents relating to the massive national security breach at the Winnipeg lab, but I can tell you that I sat on the committee—

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Yes, go ahead.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

I'm sorry, Chair. I'm just checking. We're on clause 2, and I'd ask that we stick to the relevance of the actual clause at hand. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

In clause 2, I don't see any reference to a Winnipeg lab. The member can talk as long as he likes, and I'm happy to listen or ask questions of officials, but it does have to be on the clause.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

I appreciate your intervention.

Unless the officials can tell me that there were or planned to be polling stations held at the laboratory in Winnipeg, I do agree that it's probably outside the scope of relevance.

Mr. Cooper, I'll ask you to be mindful of that.

Thank you.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Going back to my larger point, which is that there was no election like that, perhaps you could answer if there were significant challenges. Would that be a fair characterization?

[Robert Sampson]

Yes, I can confirm for the record that there were significant challenges in terms of staffing. There's more information available about that in Elections Canada's statutory report filed directly after the election.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

If you were to go back to the prior election in 2019, which was not in the midst of a pandemic, the challenges were not the same.

Were there challenges in that election with respect to recruitment and retaining people to staff polling stations?

[Robert Sampson]

It is always a challenge. We hire, and my colleagues will correct me if I don't have the number right, somewhere between 250,000 and more workers in about two weeks. These are people who are available to work on a Monday or maybe over the advance poll weekend.

It can be very difficult, pandemic or no pandemic. I will say that, in 2019, we faced those challenges. We met those challenges. The pandemic brought a whole new level of challenges, so I would say that the task of recruiting sufficient workers was more serious during the pandemic than it was in 2019, but it was certainly there in 2019.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Perhaps you could explain why that was the case, why it was so difficult in the 2019 election. Hiring 250,000 people in the span of a few weeks is a massive undertaking.

[Robert Sampson]

I'm not sure I have a complete answer for you except in terms of what you just mentioned.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Mr. Sampson, I'm sorry; wait one moment.

I'm seeing some lights blinking. It can sometimes be a quorum call, but I just want to verify that members are not needed.

It's a quorum call, so we're good to continue.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

No, we don't consent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

That's fair enough. We'll wait until the quorum call is done in about eight seconds.

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

It's not a quorum call.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

It's a vote. Oh, I'm sorry.

Ms. Barron, it's not a quorum call.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I was trying to be helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

I understand. There was no malicious attempt here.

Colleagues, I don't have consent, so we will suspend, and we will vote.

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

We got some good clips.