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.
Liberal
Fares Al Soud Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Thank you so much.
Ms. O'Rourke very kindly asked questions and made queries about AI broadly. I'm quite interested in AI and deepfakes, specifically in relation to foreign interference. Could you speak to what we do in order to disrupt these kinds of attempts?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That's a challenging question.
I think transparency is the greatest tool that we have. In my case, we are looking specifically at disinformation or misinformation in the electoral process, but of course deepfakes regarding candidates and parties and so forth also need to be considered for the integrity of the overall electoral process. That's why I think the law needs to be re-examined with that in mind.
It's an evolving threat. There was concern raised by the Canadian centre for cybersecurity ahead of the election. They are playing catch-up, as is everybody else, in their ability to detect and identify synthetic content that may be misleading.
I think platforms have an important role to play as well in making sure that they filter out synthetic content. They are the technical experts, and I believe they have a responsibility vis-à-vis that kind of content, especially in an election period.
Liberal
Fares Al Soud Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Fantastic.
My final question is on the recent election we saw. In the by-election we saw in Battle River—Crowfoot, the ballots were 97 centimetres long and 30.5 centimetres wide.
Could you speak to the choice of having voters write in their names and what kind of impact this had on increasing the resources that Elections Canada had to allocate towards the election.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
In Carleton, where we had the long ballot with 91 candidates, we did have to send in people from headquarters. We believe around 40 staff members were sent in to facilitate the count and throughout the election period—to support the returning officer at nomination, for example.
There was extensive hand-holding to support the work there. That's not something we could have done as well at a distance in Battle River—Crowfoot. The numbers were immensely superior, with not 91 but 214 names on the ballot, if I remember correctly, so we had to shift and take a different approach. We did have the write-in ballot. We did have staff on site to support the returning officer, especially for the confirmation of nominations.
Overall, in hindsight, I think it worked well—but, as I said, it's not something I would want to do regularly.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Madame Normandin, you were excellent the last time, and your questions were exactly two and a half minutes. I haven't been keeping very many people close to that, so if it goes over, don't be too strict on the two and a half minutes.
October 2nd, 2025 / 12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Mr. Chair, thank you for this latitude. I know that sometimes I don't have time to start asking a question, but I tell myself I'll count on the latitude you grant me next time.
Mr. Perrault, I'd like to come back to what happened in Nunavik during the last election. I understand the report has not yet been made public, but I'm going to try to get some details from you, if you'll allow me.
Among the factors that may have contributed to the inability of some of the polling stations in Nunavik to open, the media noted the weather. There was also a situation in which election workers arriving by plane realized, upon arrival, that they didn't have the election materials needed to allow the polling station to operate.
On one hand, I'd like your opinion on the balance that needs to be struck between planning for the unpredictable and the need to properly communicate what's happening.
On the other hand, I find it a bit strange that workers noticed upon arrival that the required materials hadn't been sent, without being informed beforehand. I'd like you to speak broadly about the need for proper communication to resolve problems in regions where there are many challenges, namely weather conditions and difficulties related to remoteness that don't exist in major urban centres.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I'll answer your question in a bit of a general way.
Weather-wise, it's clear that storms should be expected in regions like Nunavik. These things happen. It's risky to send election workers to those regions at the last minute.
Canada has a business model in which neighbours serve their neighbours. That's true throughout urban centres, but it's even more true in remote regions. It's essential for there to be local resources on site to support voter services. That doesn't always come to pass, for example, if on-site hiring was unsuccessful, so workers have to fly in sometimes. However, that has to be done as a last resort. That's the first lesson learned.
Having people on site helps with avoiding those risks and understanding what's happening locally. It's very hard to get real-time information on what's happening on election morning when we don't have workers on site. Many issues stem from the lack of on-site resources. There should be community relations officers in every community. That's one of our requirements. Those officers can help us in situations like that. They also have to take part in the recruitment effort. However, that has to be done before the election. There's risk involved if that isn't done.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to follow up on Mr. Maloney's questions with the respect to verifying the validity of signatures for nomination papers of candidates. Just so I'm clear, is it the case at present that there is no verification done by Elections Canada and that when signatures are presented on the forms, they are taken at face value?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
To be clear, there is no counter-information. We don't have, on record, the signatures of all Canadians to make that comparison, nor would the returning officers have the expertise. Signatures can change. The very concept of verifying each and every signature to make sure each one is authentic is one that is incompatible with the nature of the process.
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
There's a verification that these electors reside in the electoral district and that the numbers are correct. If there are allegations of fraudulent behaviour, then that can be addressed in the context of an investigation. That takes a lot more time.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Why not verify or audit signatures? There was evidence, for example, in the case of the longest ballot committee, that organizers were going around with nomination forms, and at the top, the space for the name of the candidate was blank.
Now, not anyone can go out and collect signatures; you actually have to be authorized by someone running to do that. What would be difficult for Elections Canada in simply undertaking some kind of audit? I don't necessarily mean going through each and every person who signed, but picking up the phone, knocking on the door or communicating in some way to verify that the individual who appears to have signed the paper did sign the paper, and they did sign it understanding that they were endorsing a specific individual whose name they wished to appear on the ballot.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
There are just a couple of points to answer, hopefully, your question.
On the issue of blank names at the top, the name of the potential or prospective candidate has to be ascertained. There cannot be a blank cheque. We have refused, in past elections.... The initial iterations of that initiative involved having a blank cheque. It was basically people signing on without an identified candidate. That is not acceptable. It has to be a known candidate, identified to the person who signs to support the nomination of that candidate.
On the issue of verification, as I said, we do not have signatures of Canadians on record, so there's nothing to compare to. It would really require an investigation to find out if these were false signatures. That is not something we would do lightly, I don't think, if there was any suspicion that there was fraudulent conduct in those long ballot initiatives.
We have no information that people forged signatures. If there was such information—credible information or credible suspicion—we would refer that to the commissioner.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
It's not necessarily forged signatures. If you present someone with 10 different papers and ask them to sign 10 different times, and then, after the fact, the name of a candidate appears at the top of that form because the form has been altered after the signatures have been collected, then that raises questions—does it not?—about the validity of that candidate and whether there was compliance with the Canada Elections Act.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It certainly does, but I am not aware of any evidence to that effect.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Perhaps you should be and perhaps that evidence will be presented, if you haven't seen it.
It speaks to the fact that.... What would be so difficult about Elections Canada calling or using some sort of mechanism, some sort of verification process, when you have these types of situations? Whether they existed in the longest ballot committee or in other circumstances, they could quite easily be detected. It wouldn't take very long to realize that this has been going on.
Wouldn't it also serve as a deterrent if there was some knowledge or awareness that Elections Canada was actually verifying that the act was being complied with?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Again, I have no information that would suggest that there was unlawful conduct taking place, either by the leaders or organizers of the longest ballot campaign or by the voters who signed.
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
If I may—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Mr. Cooper, you're over time.
Again, given the grace of the amount of time we have, Mr. Perrault, finish answering your question, and then we'll move on.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
In a nutshell, my opinion is that the committee should be left alone. Until we have reasons to suspect their behaviour, we shouldn't bother them with questions that put into question the authenticity of their behaviour. There needs to be something to start with.