Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm really pleased to appear before you today to discuss our main estimates for 2007-08. I'm accompanied today by Mrs. Diane Davidson, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer; Ms. Janice Vézina, senior director of financial matters, audit, and corporate servi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First, regarding the international missions, we have completed the missions for Iraq and Haiti at this point in time, and there is no ongoing mission. Those missions are generally funded outside of Elections Canada, either by CIDA, DFAIT, or other international organizations. My

Procedure and House Affairs committee  With regard to the appointment of returning officers, which, again, is based on merit, basically what was done at the time was that we reviewed all the returning officers and consulted with MPs as to whether they had any views on the returning officers. As provided by the act, as

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we certainly—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At this point in time, yes, but we'll have to see what proposals we get from the potential bidders on this, plus we will have to negotiate the terms of the contracts, because there are a number of options in the contract.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's by the end of July. By August 1, we hope to have a contract in place.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely, that shouldn't be a problem. The web site has a lot of information on the subject, but I can certainly send you a table showing those who are continuing in the job and—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We do have a range of programs to reach out to various groups, one group certainly being homeless individuals across the country. We try to facilitate registration and make it accessible for them, as well as to provide them, through community relation officers, with the informati

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am happy to give you a full answer by sending you more complete information, but I can assure you that, in general, Elections Canada meets the visible minority requirement according to the standards established by the commission and Treasury Board. I should also mention that w

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is $500,000.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, these requests are dealt with according to the organization's operational needs. But it seems to me that we have a very generous policy whose goal is to encourage our employees' professional development.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I know that they took part. I have not had the chance to become familiar with the results, but I can send them to you as well.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Basically, that's based on the City of Toronto's municipal election. We looked at the number of people who did not meet the ID requirements during that election. One other thing we have to keep in mind is that it is a very large, densely populated urban area. I think we have to b

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would welcome bringing any advice or any information that would help us solidify this list. The list was distributed for consultation purposes. It was also distributed to all political parties. So far, only two parties have responded, and we're still waiting to get additional c

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have targeted revisions in those ridings or in areas within ridings where we are aware there's high mobility and significant change in the demographic of the population. So we would identify that area for targeted revision. We will also be looking at some improvements in poll