Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I would like to answer that question. I will provide you with a written answer. The work has begun but I can't...

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Pretty soon.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Oh, you know the tune and the words. During an election campaign, Mr. Chairman, Elections Canada would obviously make special efforts to provide lists that would be as up-to-date as possible. Knowing the precise date of the election would be useful since we could make special efforts to collect more information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  With respect to the latter question, Mr. Chairman, the gathering of chief electoral officers in the Yukon last year--not this year--dealt specifically with this. My colleague Harry Neufeld reported back, and we had a good discussion about advantages and some disadvantages of fixed-date elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I don't see what benefits the candidates could have in starting their advertising six months in advance. If some candidates wanted to do that and want to go door to door, I believe that it could only be beneficial to our democracy. I don't see why you would want to prevent this type of activity.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. As a matter of fact, your main problem during the elections is your lack of money to advertise outside of the electoral period. However, if you were to find lots of money, we would see if this is a serious problem or not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Roughly, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We will take that into account, Mr....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe you are sincere in your understanding of what you have read but I want to ensure the committee that we would obviously include all the changes that we would have received during the election year. We would make even more efforts to ensure that. The recommendation to hold the elections on November 15, which is aimed at giving you access to electoral lists, is still valid.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. In other words, 5 days after the beginning of the election period we would send you the preliminary list of electors.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  All the people who move...

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, with respect to the national register of electors, I've alluded in my introductory remarks to the fact that a fixed election date would allow Elections Canada to open the offices of returning officers earlier, something like a month before, to do targeted updates; that is to say, an equivalent of what is done at the start of the electoral period, which is targeted revision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  From my experience during the 17 years I have held this position, it depends upon the nature of the Bill and its substance. I'm going to answer the question directly...

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On this one, I was not consulted at all.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, if most is 50% plus one, the answer is yes. We do know that it's several hundred thousand--I think it's around 300,000--youth we don't have because of that missing piece of information. There are also other Canadians, by the way, who fit in that category, but it's youth who are particularly affected.