Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 25th, 2025

[James Salt]

In typical military fashion, we always look to try to improve things. At the end of the election, we spent quite a bit of time with liaison officers, with commanding officers, with unit election officers and with Elections Canada representatives to examine what went right or anything that went wrong and to develop lessons learned for future elections. That is a continuing process. It's iterative, and we're always looking for ways to improve upon our existing process.

[Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's great.

To either one of you, I'm curious as to whether there would be any benefit to counting votes at the mission or at a military base? The more steps there are, the more room there is for error or delay. Have we ever looked at whether the embassy could be a polling station where the votes could be tabulated by people who have been properly trained?

[Kati Csaba]

Based on the Canada Elections Act, the current legislation sets out that voters abroad can only vote through special ballot, which is returned to Canada. I think it would require significant resources and training to offer that kind of service.

First of all, I believe we would have to amend the legislation, and it would require a fairly high degree of resources, for that period, to play the role of receiving the votes. Of course, an embassy would be receiving votes from Canadians from across the country, so getting those votes back to the appropriate riding would also be a challenge. I think it's more efficient to collect the ballots and then ship them back to be further distributed within Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much.

Ms. Normandin, you have the floor for four minutes.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That's more or less the question I was going to ask you. I wanted to know what the logistical needs would be if we wanted to have polling stations in embassies. I understand that it would take an amendment to the agreements and the act, but wouldn't that be a middle ground? For example, instead of mailing voting kits to Canadians abroad, embassies could give out the kits as needed. The embassy could then verify the identity of the voter, who has to confirm it on the envelope in any case. Could that be a good middle ground? I should add that the delay in receiving the voting kit also has an impact. If it were organized in advance in embassies, perhaps, in some cases, it would save time.

[Kati Csaba]

Right now, under the act and the agreement between Elections Canada and Global Affairs Canada, only Elections Canada has the right to do that work, namely to verify whether a person really has the right to vote and to put them on the list.

So it would require changes and it would involve a lot of resources. Our embassies and consulates have teams to deal with consular cases. We have to keep in mind the standards and the percentages of consular cases that might occur in a certain country. That would involve a lot of work over and above our teams' regular consular duties. Therefore, we need to find ways to add more embassy staff during election periods.

That would involve a lot of resources, as well as amendments to the act and revised procedures.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Csaba.

Captain Salt, I have a fairly specific question for you.

My riding is home to the Royal Military College Saint‑Jean. Two elections ago, a problem arose. Civilians can usually vote at the college. However, the civilian polling station for officer cadets attending the college was located off the college grounds. Some had trouble getting out. They couldn't leave the Royal Military College Saint‑Jean grounds to vote outside.

Would it be a good idea to always have polling stations at military colleges and on bases reserved for Canadian soldiers in Canada?

[James Salt]

In the case of CAF electors, the regulations require that we permit all of our CAF members the opportunity to vote during working hours. Everybody is given that opportunity and everybody is given that right. In this particular case, if members of the military college were not able to make their way to a CAF polling station, that would definitely be something I would have to look into.

Separating the polling stations is a reasonable approach, because these are special voting ballots and need to be treated differently than they would be at a civilian polling station. As I mentioned, RMC students would have been permitted to vote in the civilian station that was set up at the college at that particular time. I suspect many of them took advantage of that.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Mr. Jackson, you have five minutes, please.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses.

I'd like to quickly discuss a couple of topics, and then, Chair, I wonder if we have time at the end to discuss the work plan from now until Christmas. It's a bit up in the air.

Is there no time for that today?

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

I'm happy to speak with Mr. Cooper and Madame Normandin to set out what the notice.... It is planned. We will be starting our next study with respect to foreign interference on Thursday.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I think there's some concern, specifically with the foreign interference piece, about the public safety minister's response to this committee's request to come here and testify.

A conversation between you and the vice-chairs would be appreciated, Mr. Chair. I'll leave it at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

We'll leave it at that.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

To the witnesses, Global Affairs' policy, as I understand it.... We had a discussion recently about the French model of how—I hate to use the term “foreign”—members of Parliament represent citizens abroad and whether a similar system should be created here in Canada.

My understanding is that right now, despite the request of those individuals to have elections for members of Parliament abroad conducted on Canadian soil, as well as in other countries around the world where they provide representation, our foreign policy is that we do not allow that to happen.

If we created a system in this country where we have members of Parliament represent citizens abroad, would that not, in your opinion, be counter to our current foreign policy as it exists with respect to the other countries that already have such a system in place?

[Kati Csaba]

It is ultimately a political decision whether we want to have members of Parliament who represent communities abroad. It is not really a Global Affairs question, or it's not within Global Affairs' prerogative to determine whether—

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

No, and forgive me if I didn't word it correctly. I wasn't asking Global Affairs' opinion on whether we should or shouldn't do that. I'm just saying that right now, Global Affairs' policy is that the French member of Parliament representing French citizens living in Canada cannot conduct elections here other than at their embassy or consulate locations. Is that, in fact, our foreign policy?

[Kati Csaba]

That is a very good question to which I do not have the answer, so I will have to follow up and get back to you. I'm not 100% sure. That question I think falls within our protocol office's responsibility.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Okay. If you would commit to bringing that back to the committee, I think that would be very interesting, because we've heard from lots of individuals who think this is the way Canada should be going, and it would be ludicrous, in my opinion, for us to create a system where we don't support other countries within our borders in doing the same thing we're hoping to have them do for us. I'm just trying to understand what our foreign policy is. That would be very much appreciated.

In terms of confirmation of representation for Canadian citizens living abroad, I would like your position, if possible, on enabling voting in provincial elections. An expert not long ago said to this committee with respect to this study that it's only important for Canadians abroad to vote in national elections because identity is determined by the nation. That was the wording they used. I think my colleague from Quebec may feel quite differently about that, as well as individuals who are born in other provinces that have distinct identities within our Canadian framework.

I would like to understand why Global Affairs doesn't allow voting in provincial elections to be conducted for citizens living abroad and, if that's something that could be changed, what the impact of that might be on our foreign policy.

[Kati Csaba]

I would go back to the Canada Elections Act, which specifies the process for Canadians voting abroad to be provided with special ballots for voting in federal elections. As the situation stands, and based on that legislation and the agreement between Global Affairs and Elections Canada, we are not permitted to provide that type of support for provincial elections. I think it's a question that can be explored.

I would go back to the question on resources. Missions abroad are not resourced to provide additional federal election support and election support for all the provinces and territories of Canada, so they would require increased resources to do so.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

That means legislative change at the federal level. I'm assuming the provincial elections acts would also have to be amended in each province in order to have a relationship with Global Affairs. Would that be your understanding?

[Kati Csaba]

That would be my understanding, but I would have to check with our lawyers as to what the situation would be.

[Grant Jackson, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Chris Bittle]

Thank you so much, Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Louis, you have five minutes, please.

[Tim Louis, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank both our guests for appearing here today. Thank you for your service, Captain Salt and Ms. Csaba. For Canadians serving abroad in the armed forces or just living overseas, everyone we're talking about deserves a voting process that's accessible, secure and reliable, and you're showing us how Canada is the envy of the world in doing that.

We're having this study to talk about timeliness and equitable access, so I'll start with you, Madam Csaba.

Typically, how long does it take for a ballot, once it's received at an embassy, consulate or high commission, to be sent to Ottawa? What I'm asking is, does a mission wait until a certain date and then send all of the ballots in, or are they sent in in a rolling fashion?