Mr. Speaker, I am quite pleased to take the floor for the first time in this new session, and especially so because we are debating the Canada Elections Act, which is supposed to be completely amended by Bill C-2, an act respecting the election of members to the House of Commons, repealing other acts relating to elections and making consequential amendments to other acts.
I am very happy to take part in this debate because I have been involved in the consultations undertaken by the chief electoral officer after the May 2, 1997 election. He was looking for ways to improve this legislation which is rather outdated. For well over 30 years, it has not been revised significantly, and the chief electoral officer was striving to have it amended significantly.
After what I had gone through and what had been reported to me in my riding during the election, I got involved in this process with the help of an excellent lawyer and friend of mine, Jean-François Lacoursière. As a legal adviser to the Bloc and a good adviser on electoral law, an area in which his expert opinion has been frequently sought, he agreed to write a report which I have tabled in the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, a report we may come back to. It has hardly been mentioned.
Incidentally, it is very hard to find one's way around in this bill. Mr. Lacoursière himself told me some time ago that the Canada Elections Act was very difficult to consult and to understand. This is not normal. The federal government is already being criticized for its lack of transparency. The elections act is an extremely important important tool in that it is the basis of the election process in our country.
Therefore, it is important to call a spade a spade. It is important for the thousands of people who have to work with the Canada Elections Act at some point to be able to find whatever they are looking for quickly and efficiently instead of always feeling lost in the legalese used by government lawyers—we hope they themselves can find their way through it. It really is difficult to consult that document, which is at least one inch thick. Something is wrong here.
The problems raised by Mr. Lacoursière dealt with issues that will undoubtedly be raised again, issues like voting by mail, a process that is riddled with flaws, and voting at mobile polling stations, a process that will certainly have to be refined.
In my speech, I will touch on three main elements of this bill on which we are criticizing the government. First, there is political party financing, which is not a new issue but which deserves to be raised again because of the scandalous way in which political parties are managed and because of the connections that exist between large corporations and the election funds of traditional political parties in Canada.
Second, we want to address the designation of returning officers. Third, we want to talk about voter identification, something that leaves a lot to be desired and, here again, we can give some examples from Quebec.
Party financing is really outdated. We have not made any progress in this area. We know full well that the legislation is full of holes that allow corporations as well as individuals to shamelessly contribute all they want to Canada's traditional political parties.
Issues like the Onex proposal, which I feel, as a Quebecer, goes against the best interests of Quebec and maybe even of all of Canada and which, notwithstanding its basic flaws, demonstrates the more or less honourable relationship between the Liberal Party of Canada and the main promoter of the Onex deal, can only further undermine the proposal. We feel this entitles us to criticize this proposal all we want.
Its credibility is open to question, given the known relationship between one of the major contributors to the Liberal Party, former Cabinet members and current party managers. The federal government blithely announced that there will be a moratorium, as if it were one of its own management decisions. Obviously, it is part of the Onex agenda to get the federal government involved at some point by taking such a measure to help the deal along.
The Canadian government obviously committed itself in favour of Onex, for reasons that may too shameful to mention because they are related to the financing of the party currently in office.