I certainly share your concern. I think you are absolutely right about the risk. This is, as I noted, a U.S. election year, so those same actors who we understand had some success in 2016 will be at it again this year. This is a subject for another committee, but Canada Elections Act amendments may come in the coming weeks. The fact that we have a paper ballot system is, the Chief Electoral Officer says, one of the best ways to secure our voting system.
In my conversations with the Chief Electoral Officer, we're obviously governed by his advice and his recommendations. I think where this legislation might bump up into the important job of securing election systems is, for example, if the Canada Elections Act were to allow people to apply online for a mail-in ballot—I'm just using one example off the top of my head—where those requests would go across the telecommunications channels people have, the private businesses my colleague referred to. That is not an Elections Canada system per se, but it's vital for people having access to democracy. So if we're working on making voting more accessible in 2024, 2025, it will necessarily involve the Internet, it will necessarily involve telecommunications systems.
The voting process per se is a paper ballot, but Elections Canada is very concerned about this. We've invested in this and we've allowed the Communications Security Establishment to work with Elections Canada to strengthen their systems. As my colleague would know, we've had Government of Canada officials be available to political parties to help them secure their systems. It is a source of concern we share and we're prepared to do everything we can in that regard.