Citizen Voting Act  Nevertheless, there is a level of suppression that is a continuation of what we had last, from vouching now to this, not to mention what the voter information card dismissal brought about in the last round of legislation. The bill would require Canadian electors who reside abroad to apply for registration and a special ballot after the writs are issued at each federal election, stipulating that electors may only receive a special ballot for the address at which they last resided in Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Following the first election where the new identification rules were in place, we did a test and we used the voter information card in some very specific places, such as reserves, shelters, long-term care facilities and student residences. Evaluations showed that almost 68% of those people used the voter information cards.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's one way to simplify the process for voters in transition situations or those who can't easily access other pieces of identification. Methods like the voter information card are necessary for any segment of the population that is more mobile. Getting rid of the voter information card altogether, without introducing some other tool to help those who have difficulty proving their permanent or temporary address, would be a mistake.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  When they broke down youth into subgroups and looked at underprivileged youth, they found that for ethno-cultural youth, the top reason for not voting was not receiving a voter information card. For unemployed youth who were not in school, the top reason was the same. It was the same as well for youth with disabilities. So it suggests that the voter information card is just unlikely to be a solution to the expansion that the CEO proposes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Godin said back, yes, “Unless she has six cards and goes to very various polling stations.” Jean-Pierre Kingsley made it clear that in the 2006 general election, the voter information card was an identification card, not a voter identification card. But that in fact was how they were used. I don't think that's the case now. Bloc Québécois member Pauline Picard stated: People can go to ten different polling stations with cards that do not belong to them.

Privilege  On April 3, he replied: In fact, there are documented cases where people received multiple voter information cards. I gave the example, which was documented by the French CBC, where two Montrealers each received two voter information cards and therefore each voted twice. In his reply, the minister of state could only resort to citing, again, one single example that exists of voters voting multiple times, but he changed his story from “regular reports of people receiving multiple cards and using them to vote multiple times” to “cases where people received multiple voter information cards”.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll leave it at that, but clearly if you've seen campaigns, or if you've seen instances where people were trying to disrupt someone from voting, that should have been reported immediately. Let me just point out, because it seems a lot of witnesses are saying that the voter information card should be used as legitimate IDs, that it's certainly far, far from perfect. I'll give you one example, but I could go on for the rest of the meeting with other examples. In my first election, in 2004, several—when I say several, it's probably in excess of 100 to 200—people in my riding were given wrong information on voter information cards.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Additionally and finally, NWAC recommends that provisions that remove the ability to use the voter information card as proof of residency and that disallow vouching be struck from this bill. Thanks very much. I'm sorry for going over.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The first is the restrictive ID requirements and disallowance of vouching. These provisions that disallow voter information cards as proof of residency will create a new barrier to first nations citizens wishing to vote, particularly those residing in first nation communities who don't use a home address or who have recently moved or are living in overcrowded housing situations, which we know exist.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You've touched on two issues. One is vouching and one is the use of the voter information card as a form of ID. Let me address the latter first and the former second. The voter information card draws its information from the national register of electors, on which one in six names has false information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  He has also stated that voter information cards must be eliminated as identification for confirming a voter’s address because these cards are a replacement for acceptable ID. The minister has used the “2013 Compliance Review Report”, which I authored, that drew attention to administrative errors made by election officers during the 2011 general election, as the basis for justifying the elimination of vouching.

Business of Supply  We know that there are problems with funding. Why can we not get at the real problems instead of this phony problem of the voter information card?

Business of Supply  These pieces of ID are set by Elections Canada, with the exception that the bill says voters cannot use the voter information card. There are 38 pieces of ID. Those 38 include 25 pieces of ID that can prove who a person is. Then a person needs to find 1 of 13 pieces of ID to prove where he or she lives. We are really looking at 13 pieces of ID.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the voter information cards in the last election had a one in six error rate. One out of every six voter information cards sent out contained an error. The problem with errors in those cards is that they allow people to vote in places where they do not live, or potentially vote more than once.

Business of Supply  The fact is that many seniors residences do not provide, or refuse to provide, or are slow to provide the kind of attestation of residence that could also be a proof of address, and so, the voter information card substituted for that and made voting that much easier for seniors in residences.