Evidence of meeting #4 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
We would love to use all the schools. That would be fantastic. My provincial counterparts in most provinces have a statutory right of access to schools. In Ontario, they don't even pay for the schools. That's not what I'm asking for, but they have that right. I don't, with education being a provincial jurisdiction.
We have seen a decline in the percentage of sites that are schools over the years. It went even lower during the pandemic and has gone back up. We're now at 22%, but it was significantly higher in the past. Schools are very convenient proximity places for electors. Unfortunately, parents are increasingly concerned about security or increasingly concerned about their children's activities that are planned at the school on the weekend. That puts principals in a difficult situation, and in some cases, they simply do not wish to have polls at the schools.
Conservative
Tako Van Popta Conservative Langley Township—Fraser Heights, BC
I have a follow-up question on voter participation.
In the report, you make the point that it improved substantially in this recent election—up to 69% voter participation—which is the highest, as you note, since 1993. However, I did some quick research into voter turnout throughout Canadian history, and in 1958, for the Diefenbaker landslide, it was 75%. It stayed above 70% for a long time, and then it started to slip down, and now it has been a while since it has been above 70%. I'm not usually a “glass half empty” person, but 69% means that 31% didn't vote. That's 9.8 million people.
First of all, do you have that broken down into demographics? Who is voting, and who is not voting? Are older people not voting? Are younger people not voting?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
We'll have that information later on. We do not have it at this time, but it will be compiled. Some demographics, for example, are not as accurate. For example, for ethnolinguistic communities, we don't have that data, but for age, we do. Certainly, we'll have more information on that.
It is important to remind everyone that our mandate does not include promoting participation. That's the role of other players, including yourselves and your competitors. Our role is to make sure that services are available and that information is there for electors to exercise their rights, if they so wish. Of course, we're always happy to see a high participation rate, but that's not something we have a mandate to promote. We have to make sure we can provide the services. We saw in this election, with the high turnout and the migration to advance polls, the implication that this has for us.
When I speak of the turnout in my report and in my remarks, I'm looking at it largely from the angle of whether we can meet that service demand. As it shifts in time during a period, I'm looking at what the implications are for us to meet that mandate of offering services to Canadians.
Liberal
Liberal
Fares Al Soud Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will be sharing my time with my colleague and good friend Ms. O'Rourke.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Okay. I won't cut you off at the halfway mark. I'll try to give you a signal, but that's up to you to sort out.
Liberal
Fares Al Soud Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
That's perfectly fine. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll get right into it.
It's no secret that I'm a big proponent of open banking. I'm quite interested in the cryptocurrency space. I promise there's a point to this. It's also no secret that I'm a big proponent of government and electoral transparency. We all know that Canada's political financing regime is strong. We know there is room for improvement. Can you share your thoughts on whether we should ban political entities and third parties from accepting crypto, money orders and prepaid payment products, and if so, why?
What challenges need to be addressed to strengthen our political financing regime?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The problem with those instruments is that they do not provide transparency as to the original source of the contributor. A key principle of our system is that we know where the money comes from. There's no, in my view, valid reason to use a prepaid instrument, a prepaid credit card, to provide money to a candidate or to a political party. These tools may have a very valid purpose otherwise in our economy, but in terms of financing parties and candidates, I do not believe they are appropriate.
Liberal
Fares Al Soud Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Given that quick response, I will take the time to ask my second question. It goes back to my heritage interest. I know that Mr. Louis is also quite interested in this one.
Could you expand on the process of sharing information with local journalists and media outlets? What does that look like on the ground and on a day-by-day basis?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
If I had my media relations person here, she would provide much greater detail to that. We have regional media advisers, during the election, who are in contact with all the news outlets and radio stations in the different communities, so they are able to respond to that and support it. Of course, we provide prepackaged pieces of information to help them and to help those media outlets share the information about the voting process.
Liberal
Liberal
Dominique O'Rourke Liberal Guelph, ON
Thank you, my friend.
In the November 2024 Elections Canada report, “Protecting Against Threats to the Electoral Process”, you recommended that the Canada Elections Act needs to more clearly prohibit third parties “from using property or services” from foreign entities “for regulated activities”.
Could you explain what that means and what the intent is behind your recommendation?
October 2nd, 2025 / 12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I made a number of recommendations regarding the funding of third parties, including the fact that entities that receive more than 10% of their funds from contributions should have distinct bank accounts to provide money. That is one aspect that was included in Bill C-65.
I did recommend also that we clarify rules against non-monetary contributions—the providing of a service or a good to a third party by a foreign entity—so as to not just capture monetary contributions but also non-monetary contributions.
Liberal
Dominique O'Rourke Liberal Guelph, ON
I have a municipal background. In every cycle for a municipality, we look at voting methods. In Ontario in the last election, a number of municipalities went to online voting.
I want to ask a question. I believe that paper ballots are the safest method currently, especially when it comes to the need for a recount. I'm just wondering if you could tell us, and Canadians, what the state of research is on alternate electoral methods, whether that is online or using tabulators, which are not connected to the Internet, clearly. What other models are you looking at?
Also, if and when there are any recommendations, do you come back with costed recommendations for that?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
There is not a unique way of voting that is the best way of voting. It depends on the jurisdiction and the circumstances, for example, whether it's a school board election in a remote area, where online voting may make a lot of sense, given the low risks in that area and the challenges that it faces. However, at a national level, I'm a firm believer that we should not move to online voting. I believe that the paper ballot is critical, not only to the integrity but to the trust of Canadians in the integrity of the process. Canadians need to feel confident about their elections. I do not see that confidence at the federal level for online or electronic modes of voting.
Now, that's a very different proposition than tabulation. Tabulation can be effective, secure, audited and replicated. It involves the use of a paper ballot that is scanned, but it does not destroy the paper ballot. There are many good uses of tabulation, and many provincial jurisdictions use tabulation. We do not, and I'm not looking at that for the moment. I have no plans to move toward tabulation, but that is something that could be considered.
The geography that we have puts limitations on the distribution and the value proposition of sending tabulators. Even jurisdictions that use tabulation—Ontario is one—only use it in urban and suburban areas. They would not send a tabulator to a remote area. There's no business case for that. In urban centres, they would not use a tabulator in a condo building with a single poll; that just doesn't make any sense from a monetary point of view. Even when you go to tabulation, wall-to-wall tabulation is not something that exists in most jurisdictions.
I'm not sure that I remember the last question that you had.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
In any event, the time is up.
I'd like to thank the witnesses.
We are adjourned.