Procedure and House Affairs committee  Being from Saskatchewan, you will know that while my office's mandate is really focused on barriers to voting and on how we can lower those barriers for everyone, I have also done a fair amount of writing on this topic, in op-eds and elsewhere, to voice my concern about that diminished turnout rate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What I would suggest is that we be very careful not to place the responsibility on the election management body for increasing the level of turnout. I think academics and thought leaders across the country will tell you that it would be a losing effort. However, here in Saskatchewan, my goal and my approach has been to bring in those other stakeholders within civil society.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. As you know, under normal circumstances, an election management body's job is not necessarily to get the vote out—at least, not in Saskatchewan. It is to reduce barriers for all voters so that they have access to the ballot. That's something we've worked on for many years in the province.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have read Mr. Perrault's report, and one of the things being asked for is that he be able to adapt the process. That was something I was provided with through regulatory changes. I would be allowed to adapt the process. I wasn't allowed to change the process. I think that was the line where it proved to be difficult to serve first nations in some cases.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We in Saskatchewan have not had the experience with voting by mail that British Columbia has had in the past. They have had four events, kind of practising for this event. Our numbers have gone from 1% of individuals participating to about 12.5%, so there was a significant increase.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I did spend a lot of time messaging in advance that it was quite likely that some of our older workers who had traditionally worked for us would not be able to work for us because of COVID-19 and the concerns over a health hazard. As a result, I focused very much on messaging to the public that we needed workers, so that new individuals who hadn't thought about participating and giving back to their democracy would become involved.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would have to assess it first. I had not heard that this was a problem. One of the challenges is that the counterfoils are put into the ballot box after the fact. They remain in there so that we can evaluate after the fact. I haven't heard this to be a problem, Mr. Tochor, but I would certainly be willing to look into it further.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Just to be clear on the counterfoil, Mr. Tochor, the counterfoil is not put into the ballot box when the ballot is cast. That's normally the way it works. The counterfoil remains outside the box. It may be that after the fact they were placed into the ballot box. I'm certainly willing to look into it further.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we're still in the midst of the count. We had what was called our second preliminary count this past week. During that time, we began to count the vote-by-mail ballots. Now, this coming Saturday, we will count the rest of those ballots. These are form B ballots, as you mentioned, on which you write down either the candidate or the political party, and so that is how it is counted.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Throughout the day, we knew who was in the polling location at all times. At that point, if an individual was identified as a case, it would have been referred directly to the local medical health officer, and contact tracing would have been pursued. All of that was completed through the Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Perhaps in Saskatchewan it was a little bit different from in British Columbia. Door knocking was allowed. My mandate is not to oversee campaigning. However, I was in close contact with the chief medical health officer. He asked for guidance with respect to how to proceed. In the end, we determined that Ministry of Health guidance would supersede anything that I would put forward.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There were a variety of mechanisms by which I sought input with respect to the political actors. I do work closely with our six registered political parties and receive input from them. Leading up to the election, however, we established what was called the electoral advisory group, which was constituted of myself as chair, the chief medical health officer, and the two House leaders from the Legislative Assembly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. We can provide some information on that.