Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to comment on electoral lists.
I have to caution the hon. member. I am sure if information was transferred from the local returning officers to the Chief Electoral Officer, it was not deliberately ignored. We have been very fortunate to have an individual and a team that works very hard under the existing rules to ensure all the information is up to date and accurate to the extent that this is possible. As well, the Chief Electoral Officer and his team works very hard to ensure that the operation of Canadian elections is the envy of the world.
I should point out that our Chief Electoral Officer is invited on a regular basis to go to other countries to try to assist those countries in developing their electoral system.
Nonetheless, the member raises an interesting point with respect to the accuracy of those lists. I think the problem begins, to the extent that there is a problem, with the wording on the Canadian income tax forms. In my opinion, the forms do not make it clear that the information a taxpayer ticks off is only available to those who are Canadian citizens.
We are going to make it very explicit on the income tax return. The first question is, “Are you a Canadian citizen”. Second, we will follow up with, “Therefore, do you consent to have that information transferred to the Chief Electoral Officer for his list?”
I think changes in the wording will increase the accuracy of that. I already indicated in my second reading address that there would be a greater exchange of information. One of the problems to which the hon. member alluded was the names of people who were dead remained on the list. There will be greater sharing of that information.
Generally, taken together, these recommendations, which came from all political parties at the operations committee, will improve the integrity and improve the accuracy because that is what we want.
Also adding on the list the date of birth of the individuals will clear up some of the problem of people with duplicate names. This will help to ensure that the person who gets the ballot is the person who is actually identified.
All of these taken together should improve the system.