Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I remember well, Ms. Finley, if we can take that example...I think it was 11 by 17 inches.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It goes into a photocopier, so I suspect that it can be scanned.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're trying to remove technicalities. That's what we're trying to remove. Maybe Jeremy, you have something to add.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think Ms. Finley essentially brought that to our attention in a very direct way, in the sense of when you have individuals who are signing a petition that is exactly of the same type as the petition on an 8 x 11 piece of paper, but is in a different format. For different reasons—and I think Ms.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The postcards, most of the time, are written in different formats, so even the content, the text that would be there, could not be counted as a petition. That has been the case in the past.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's up to the committee to decide.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The idea here is essentially to ensure that whenever there is a signatory, a person who signs a paper petition, the amount of information that's needed to identify the individual is enlarged a bit to make sure that that petition can be counted amongst the 25 names. It's that simple.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The exchanges we've had so far with the Privy Council Office have been very supportive and highly positive on this one. It's really a discussion of a technical nature to make sure that whenever there is a transfer of information between the Privy Council Office and the government, that information is made accessible in the best way possible.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Nater, that is a good question. It was one of the main issues in the last Parliament, when the question of e-petitions came up. The reason is that a lot of information is gathered when you sign a petition, in the sense that there can be a lot of people signing that petition electronically.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're already working with the Privy Council Office on this, and clearly if this committee is supportive of that idea—without having a specific time frame, because we have not been able to identify that as of now—we will pursue our discussions with the Privy Council Office to make sure that all of that information can be shared as widely as possible.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Do you mean the private citizen that would be—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Let's say Mr. Saini signs a petition. No, not Mr. Saini because he cannot sign a petition. Well, he can sign a petition, but we won't count his name. Let's say that people sign a petition. We won't check each of the names listed to see if that person really lives on that street or in that city mentioned.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's about the same—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —process for the e-petitions. That said, there are further requirements that have been identified by the committee—for instance, the IP address. Clearly, the IP address cannot be from the Government of Canada. That's an example of it. Those are easy things to do. As you are aware, an email address is like any other address found on a paper petition.