Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I'm joined by Mike Bisson, deputy commissioner, operations, and Chantal Richard, executive director and senior general counsel.
Bill C‑25 proposes significant changes that will directly affect my office and the investigations we undertake. It grants important new investigative tools and powers that are essential to fulfilling our mandate effectively. Overall, the bill closes several key compliance and enforcement gaps in the Canada Elections Act and strengthens the existing enforcement framework.
I would, however, like to highlight a few areas where the bill could be improved.
First, regarding the privacy regime for political parties, a single set of rules set out directly in the act and applicable to all parties should be adopted, rather than having to enforce multiple party-specific policies. This would ensure consistency among political parties and a unified approach to enforcement.
The documents held by political parties, candidates and electoral district associations should also be subject to a mandatory retention period and should be provided to my office upon request. Otherwise, we may face challenges getting the evidence to conduct our investigations. In addition, political parties should be required to report privacy breaches to my office so I may decide to launch investigations if circumstances warrant it.
Second, I would like to raise a concern regarding the proposed option to destroy crypto contributions. This could result in the loss of important evidence and impede investigations. It would be preferable to remove this option and instead require that such contributions be returned unused or converted to money and returned to the receiver general.
My office has long relied on the act's well-established penal regime, which remains a critical enforcement tool. While the AMP regime is comparatively recent and still evolving, Bill C-25 makes a meaningful contribution to its continued maturation. These changes will support stronger compliance outcomes by providing my office with greater agility. We will indeed have improved access to timely information and the ability to act across a broader range of circumstances both during and outside pre-election and election periods. This is important, given that issues such as foreign interference and disinformation may occur at any time.
Taken together, Bill C-25 represents a meaningful expansion of my office's mandate and further solidifies Canada's position as a world leader in electoral compliance and enforcement. We will continue to ensure that we have the people, expertise and processes in place to implement any new powers.
I would be pleased to answer the committee's questions. Thank you.