Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 5th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 19 of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

The committee is meeting today to review the main estimates for the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

I'd like to welcome the witnesses.

Mr. Perrault, I will pass the floor over to you. You can also introduce the people you brought along with you today.

Welcome.

[Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada]

Thank you.

With me I have Marc Limoges, chief financial officer, and Sue Torosian, executive director, public affairs and civic education.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak with the committee this morning about Elections Canada's 2022‑23 main estimates.

I will also briefly update the committee on the closing of the 44th general election and some of our priorities, as we move toward the next election.

Elections Canada is funded under two distinct authorities: an annual appropriation and an ongoing statutory authority.

The committee will vote today on the annual appropriation, which amounts to $49.3 million and represents the salaries of some 530 indeterminate positions. The annual appropriation is used solely to pay the salaries of permanent staff members at Elections Canada. This amount is the same as that of last fiscal year's voted appropriation, with some variance for new collective agreements.

The ongoing statutory authority covers all other expenses of the agency.

This funding model ensures Elections Canada's independence by allowing it to access the funds required to plan and deliver elections, which, as we know, may occur at any time. Planned spending under the statutory authority is reported annually to Parliament for transparency and accountability.

The statutory appropriation, as reported in the main estimates, totals $154 million. Approximately half of this amount—$78 million—reflects operating expenses of the agency. These costs have remained stable over the last five years. The other half—$75 million— represents expenses that are non-discretionary or that relate to the conduct of elections. This includes costs related to the last election and expenses for the preparation of the 45th general election, as well as expenses related to the work of the commissions charged with the redistribution of electoral boundaries.

As we close out the last election, Elections Canada is currently conducting regional meetings across the country to draw lessons from election workers in the field and find ways we can improve election administration.

Another important piece in finalizing the election is the audit of political entities' financial returns, particularly those of the candidates. Our goal is to complete the audit of all candidates' campaign returns by the end of January 2023, which is within 12 months of the original filing deadline.

A final piece in closing the election will be my recommendations to Parliament for legislative changes to the Canada Elections Act. A recommendations report is normally done after each election; however, following the 2019 election, our focus was on adjusting to the pandemic. Accordingly, this report encompasses lessons and reflections flowing from both of the last two elections.

The report will also include recommendations from the Commissioner of Canada Elections for better compliance with and enforcement of the act.

Madam Chair, in the past, the practice has been that after I present my recommendations, my officials are made available to the committee for the detailed review. I'd be happy to offer that as well.

I plan to submit my report to the Speaker at the end of May. Once tabled, the report will be referred to this committee. Of course, I look forward to working with the committee as it reviews the recommendations.

Moving forward, our immediate priority is to ensure the agency is well positioned to deliver the next election. Of course, this is especially important since we now have a minority government. With this in mind, the agency is currently focusing on two short-term priorities for the next election.

The first is the vote on campus initiative. Our goal is to be in a position to offer campus kiosks in all general elections moving forward, even outside of a fixed-date electoral calendar.

The second priority is to improve our service offerings in order to give electors in remote communities access to advance polls, even if this means having less than four days of advance polls in some locations. In doing this, we hope to improve services for indigenous voters in particular. This is in addition to the improvements we want to bring to the presence of indigenous languages at the polls.

These two priorities do not require legislative changes.

Madam Chair, while I am here today to discuss the main estimates, I'd also be happy to answer any questions from the committee or to clarify information the committee heard regarding its study on the inclusion of indigenous languages on federal election ballots.

Thank you. I welcome your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you, Mr. Perrault. Once again, welcome to PROC.

We will start six-minute rounds with Mr. Kmiec, followed by Mrs. Sahota, Madame Gaudreau and Mr. Bachrach.

Go ahead, Mr. Kmiec.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm going to ask you questions about the Inspire Democracy network. I'll give you time to go and find it in your notes, but I'm going to start by saying thank you for spending less money. I go to a lot of these meetings in committees, as I have in the past, and I don't think it is said often enough when a government agency comes before a committee to explain its estimates and is spending less, so thank you on behalf of taxpayers. I'll start with that. I know it's likely related to the election, but you have to be recognized when you're spending less.

On the cost of the Inspire Democracy network, I would like to know about Elections Canada's support for this network and how much is being spent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I'm going to pause quickly.

Mr. Kmiec, you're new to the committee and I know it has been a long time since you made an appearance at PROC, but at this committee, I would appreciate comments going through the chair.

Go ahead, Mr. Perrault.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Sure.

[Stéphane Perrault]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do not have the detailed costs of the Inspire Democracy program. I understand there's a question that has been posed in the House, and we are preparing that information, so I'd be happy to provide it at that time or through this committee. Either way, I can do that.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Through you, Madam Chair, is there any information that you can provide to committee on how extensive the help is that is being provided to this network?

What is the number of events throughout Canada? What are the types of supports? Are there staff members who are assigned to assist them? That's also information I'm looking for.

[Stéphane Perrault]

Madam Chair, I'll ask Ms. Torosian to speak to that, as she is responsible for the program.

[Susan Torosian, Executive Director, Public Affairs and Civic Education, Elections Canada]

Through the chair, thank you for your question.

The Inspire Democracy program was initiated after a comprehensive review back in 2010 that was completed in 2012. It was launched roughly sometime in 2014, prior to the 2015 election.

It started out originally to focus on youth participation, because their barriers to electoral participation were quite significant compared to the general population. In subsequent years, we have expanded it to electors with disabilities who also face barriers to participation, as well as to indigenous electors and new Canadians.

In terms of the network, for the last election, we worked with 27 organizations in formal contractual relationships. The intent here is for them to share information with their constituents.

For example, young people tend to listen to organizations that they're familiar with versus information coming from Elections Canada, so we work with them to make sure they have accurate information about the election process and distribute that to their clientele. That's an example.

There were 27 contractual relationships, and then there are some 600 organizations that subscribe to an email, a kind of information blast that we send out based on electoral information.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Madam Chair, I'm wondering about this contractual relationship. How are these organizations selected? Did they have to provide matching funds or contributions in kind? I'm curious about how that was done.

[Susan Torosian]

Through you, Madam Chair, the way we work on this is to look across the country and determine which organizations are working with youth and doing work in this space already, or with any of those groups that I talked about. It's a fee for service; it's not a funding arrangement. They may be creating a guide through which they will speak in their own voice, but they make sure that they have accurate information on the electoral process, validated from Elections Canada. Those are the kinds of things.

We also monitor and make sure that they all sign a non-partisan clause as well. That's another part of the contractual relationship, and we monitor compliance with that non-partisanship.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

You said that you review these guides that they write in their own language, because obviously they can communicate better with the people who follow them. Who has final editorial control? Is it Elections Canada or the organizations?

[Susan Torosian]

The way the process works is they submit their documentation to us, having been provided with the basic information from Elections Canada. The main content of that is what we call our “Guide to the federal election”, which is distributed to all Canadian households across the country. It walks through all the elements of what you need to know to be able to register and vote in federal elections.

They then develop their own content, and we validate it and work with them to make sure that they have accurate information. It could be in a different voice—in more colloquial language, and those kinds of things—from what a federal government department or an independent officer of Parliament would use.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

These products are therefore edited by Elections Canada. Is that right?

[Susan Torosian]

That's correct.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

You then, therefore, have the final decision-making, just to make sure that what they are saying about elections is accurate and consistent with the Elections Canada Act, correct?

Has it ever happened that an organization has insisted on putting something out that wasn't accurate?

[Susan Torosian]

In the last federal election, no, we didn't have any issues.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

What about in prior elections?

[Susan Torosian]

No, we've never had any issues with accuracy.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

I want to ask you something as well, then, through Madam Chair, because I can't ask you this directly.

The support, you said, was a fee for service. Can you explain a bit how that would work?

[Susan Torosian]

For example, through you, Madam Chair, some contractors run events where.... I can speak to, for example, blind electors. We have a mock ballot for blind electors or people with vision impairment. Some of the workshops that they may hold are about how to mark a ballot in terms of using the guide that we provide to electors, because it's a new thing for many people, particularly someone voting for the first time. They may run a workshop that shows people how to use that guide at the polls, as an example.

Those are the kinds of things. It depends on the relationship and the contractor we're working with.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Is my time done?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

It would be, yes.

Ms. Sahota, you have the floor.