Procedure and House Affairs committee  I cannot predict which interpretation Elections Canada will take.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  All I'm saying is that “adjacent” doesn't necessarily mean “adjoining”. The boundaries don't necessarily need to touch. It could be another electoral district that is close by.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it's in the Black's Law Dictionary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Canadian Oxford Dictionary and Le Petit Robert, in French, also define adjacent as near or....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, any electoral district. Of course, electors can only vote in the electoral district in which they ordinarily reside, so this is a consequential amendment to that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's the same or adjacent.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes and no. I would like to correct you; sorry, Mr. Chair. It would be untrue to say that any election officer can do something. I would refer you again to page 17 of the bill, line 34, in English. In French, it's on line 40. It says that returning officers have to designat

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The act doesn't allow; the act requires a returning officer to designate specific functions to election officers, so no election officer can do anything without being specifically required by the returning officer to do it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think I would say that this is only an oversight, because prior to Bill C-76 the election officers were required to reside in the electoral district, so of course if they were assigned to a polling station, it would be in the same electoral district. Now that we're allowing the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. To answer Mr. Bittle's question, the secrecy of the vote and all the prohibitions associated with it are found in the proposed new part 11.1 of the bill.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's new part 11.1.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm just saying that while institutions have the power to issue such a letter right now, many do so and it facilitates their residents in voting, but some argue that they don't have time for that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, the act already authorizes the Chief Electoral Officer to authorize pieces of ID that can be used at the polling stations. The Chief Electoral Officer has already authorized a letter issued by the management of such institutions to be recognized

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I don't think so. I think it would be allowed, and the Chief Electoral Officer can already authorize that type of identification under subsection 143(2.1) of the act.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, I'll let you come to your own conclusions, but the Chief Electoral Officer already has the authority to authorize such a form of identification.