Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity to testify on this very important bill. I'm especially honoured to be testifying beside Monsieur Lortie. I really need to practice my French. There are many technical terms with regard to this proposed legislation, so I will make my rem

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I agree with that. In case there was a misunderstanding, when I'm saying that Elections Canada should appoint all the workers, parties could still suggest people. It's just that now the returning officer has no choice under the bill but to appoint the person if the party or candi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, but there's no reason to add to this partisanship with this new position being appointed by the ruling party. No party should be able to force the returning officer to appoint a certain person. They should have the power, of course, to suggest anyone. There would be an appli

Procedure and House Affairs committee  With regard to election workers, they would have to wait for the suggestions to come from the parties or the candidates, because those suggestions bind the returning officer to appoint people, and that often doesn't happen until quite late.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, if they were empowered earlier, then they would be able to hire people and make these appointments.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Exactly. It's a budgetary matter. They would then be able to train everybody better, and the polling station would be run better, and the voting irregularities would diminish.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's my exact point.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  But if the ruling party or the party that placed second in a riding is allowed to force the returning officer to appoint certain election workers, then the returning officer has to wait. They can't hire people early, and can't, as a result, train them early and train them fully.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, the returning officer is required, if the party or—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, no. If the ruling party or second party in the previous election puts forward a candidate, the returning officer is required to appoint that person. That is the problem. That comes very late. They don't have time to train them fully. Plus, they could have partisan bias. I agr

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have a current instance of a certain party's supervisor contacting the auditors who were doing audits of senators, and that—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —violated the firm's internal policies.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  When you choose your own judge, it's always dangerous, I would say. Choosing your own auditor is dangerous. Elections Canada should be appointing these people.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Democracy Watch's conclusion is that the current measure prohibiting vouching and prohibiting use of the voter information card will be found to be unconstitutional, and there is a reasonable compromise that includes empowering Elections Canada to hire people earlier, which means

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If you're talking about the Commissioner of Canada Elections, yes, it's a clear bar on the commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions from disclosing anything about any investigation unless they prosecute or unless they do a compliance agreement. If they prosecute, obvi