National Defence Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-77, an act to amend the National Defence Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other acts. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Elections Modernization Act  moved that Bill C-76, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and other Acts and to make certain consequential amendments, be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to begin the debate at second reading of Bill C-76, the elections modernizat

Elections Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his work on the whole area of democratic institutions. One of the first things we did as a government was bring in a new advertising policy. That was in the spring of 2016. That advertising policy, among other things, would ban, and has b

Elections Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his engagement on the whole area of electoral reform. As he has indicated, he agrees and the NDP members have expressed in principle support for much of what is in this bill, particularly for the components of this bill that reflect the re

Elections Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, one of the recommendations from Elections Canada, having had the opportunity to analyze the impact of the changes that the previous government made in eliminating vouching and voter information cards, was that we bring back voter information cards. In fact, I mention

Elections Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, again, we believe very strongly that having more Canadians active in the political process, including in elections, is really important and vital for our democracy. That really starts with young Canadians. To have a registry of future voters and to engage young Cana

Elections Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. Again, it is very important to increase flexibility to help voters participate in the electoral process, just as it is very important to protect the integrity of our voting system. To restore vouching, as an example, is one area of flexib

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, leading up to the last federal election, in fact, in the years of the Harper government, it spent almost a billion dollars on quasi-partisan government advertising. We changed the advertising policy for the Government of Canada to eliminate that kind of blatant parti

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is conflating two different things. One is a limit on all political parties in terms of their advertising spending, and we are putting in place a pre-writ period that would apply to all political parties. The other is on government advertising, and we

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, once again, we are committed to increasing Canadians' trust and participation in our democratic processes. This bill will make our elections more accessible, make the electoral process more secure and transparent, and ensure that political parties protect the privacy

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, in response to questions about the future electors registry, in fact, the information of young people who actually become part of that registry would not be shared with political parties. I was clear on that earlier this week. I am surprised that the Conservatives w

Social Development  Mr. Speaker, our government understands digital services should be based on user needs, not government processes. Earlier this year, my parliamentary secretary, the member for Vancouver Quadra, represented Canada as we signed the Digital 7 charter, joining leading digital nations

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, there is only one party in the House of Commons which has paid a $250,000-fine for breaking election rules, and that is the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party and the Harper Conservatives had the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister taken to jail in

Main Estimates, 2018-19  moved: That Vote 1, in the amount of $465,000, under Northern Pipeline Agency — Program expenditures and contributions, in the Main Estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, be concurred in. Mr. Speaker, tonight, I am pleased to speak about the 2018-19 main estima

Main Estimates, 2018-19  Mr. Speaker, I would draw the attention of the hon. member to the words of the Auditor General, who did recognize that our government could not move funding arbitrarily from one of these commitment to another, one of these investments that are listed quite clearly in annex 1 of t