Business of Supply  That is the reality of the changes to the elections act being proposed today. My second point has to do with voting using the voter information card, which also specifically affects these groups. As my colleague from Toronto—Danforth just mentioned in response to a question from the government, the 2011 target groups who could use voter information cards to vote were youth, aboriginal people and seniors in residences.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Some of the concerns coming out of Bill C-23 were that we might end up with some unexpected bottlenecks and challenges at the polls. Voter information cards will no longer be able to be used. It could be that we end up with even more vouching in 2015 than we had in 2011. Vouching for address has been restored—it's in the new bill—but people will not be able to prove address with the voter information card.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The need to rely on vouching should also be reduced. This is why Mr. Neufeld recommended expanding the use of the voter information card as an authorized document to establish address. It is worth noting that the VIC is the only document issued by the federal government that includes address information. The Canadian passport, for example, does not include an address.

Fair Elections Act  For all those who take it for granted that they can vote using that card, why not include an amendment to tell the Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada to write a message in big, highly visible letters on the voter information card that the card cannot be used as a form of identification when a person goes to vote? It is quite simple, really. All we want to do is avoid confusion. Many people show up to vote with their card and another piece of ID.

Fair Elections Act  An examination of Elections Canada's own reports on the subject indicate that youth in Canada, the group with the lowest voter participation, indicated that one of the primary reasons they do not vote is because they do not know where to vote. They do not know and are not given that voter information card because they moved recently. The absence of the voter information card, which is Elections Canada's way of attempting to assist youths to find out where to vote, was cited as one of the key reasons they did not vote.

Fair Elections Act  Second, Bill C-23 would prohibit the Chief Electoral Officer from authorizing the use of voter information cards, or VICs, as a piece of voter identification to be used not on their own but alongside a second piece of identification. It would do this despite the fact that such cards are a method of enfranchisement that were introduced because of concerns about limited forms of identity showing address and despite the fact that smoother administration of voting on election day resulted from their use in various contexts in 2011.

Fair Elections Act  What I would not support is the NDP's suggestion that people should not require any ID to vote. The fair elections act would prohibit the use of vouching and voter information cards as replacements for acceptable ID. Studies commissioned by Elections Canada demonstrate mass irregularities in the use of vouching and high rates of inaccuracy on voter information cards.

Fair Elections Act  I would also like to indicate that for all of the times that the minister tried to convince people that voter information cards can be a source of fraud, he has never once been able to show one example, and all his general examples never worked. The fact is that people need a second piece of ID and if they have received a voter information card that is not their own, in order to vote they have to forge a second piece to do so.

Business of Supply  Speaker, in setting the context, I will take just a few moments to elaborate on an important piece of legislation on democratic reform that he and I both debated, the Fair Elections Act, which requires people to present ID when they vote, a new requirement in Canadian elections that has removed the largely inaccurate voter information card as a form of ID. It has brought in independent investigations so that an investigator can look into potential violations of the Canada election law without any interference from either a party or Elections Canada itself.

Fair Elections Act  For example, when it was clear that the government was not going to allow the Chief Electoral Officer to authorize the use of voter information cards as a second piece of identification, when it was clear that we had lost that fight, we tabled an amendment simply saying that the Chief Electoral Officer had to ensure that the voter information cards were prominently marked with a message to say that this card cannot be used for purposes of identification on voting day, something that was designed to prevent chaos that might occur in 2015 because of the hundreds of thousands who were able to use VICs in 2011.

Fair Elections Act  In fact, the Quebec comedy show Infoman did an interesting exposé on this. Two Montrealers received two voter information cards each, so they both went and voted twice each. They called it the “two-for-one special by Elections Canada”. This level of error, one in six, is also too high. As a result, the fair elections act would end the use of the voter information card as an acceptable form of identification.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay, but I can confirm that the voter information card currently displays the following sentence: “Please take this card when you go to vote.” So if that sentence is on the voter information card, but nothing further is provided to help the voter find the right polling station, and they cannot use the card for identification purposes, I think some issues could arise.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is our best effort to acknowledge that we've lost. You have won on getting rid of the voter information card as anything that can be used. We've given good reasons why chaos could result. This is an attempt to make sure that harm, in 2015 at the polls, is reduced. There is no downside to putting this in.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's obviously not prominent. This is harm reduction. We have run up the white flag concerning the voter information card and the way the government is neutralizing its effectiveness. We accept that; we can count. This is, as my colleague Mr. Scott has said, harm reduction. My colleague also said that there is no downside.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As bizarre as it may seem, the official opposition lost all of its amendments that attempted to bring back the ability of the Chief Electoral Officer to authorize voter information cards to be used as a second piece of ID alongside another piece of ID to show an address prominently. What we're left with now is a situation where almost one million people were authorized to use them in 2011.