Procedure and House Affairs committee  That would have to be done in a different manner, because right now a lot of rural people pick their mail up in the post office, or it would be an assembly outside somewhere, but not home to home.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I think that's something that could be considered. On the other hand, I know from past experiences that a long writ period and all the campaigning that goes with it seems to weigh on people. It seems to weigh on people's minds who live in the public too. They actually get ti

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it would be in the timeliness, most likely—that things are delivered on time. This year, it seems like Canada Post is extremely busy because of a lot of the online shopping, and unfortunately, some of the small businesses have been closed down. I think the timeliness woul

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. Of course, that would be one of our major concerns: having to apply for them online. We don't have good connectivity out in the rural areas. It's not reliable. I think you're familiar with that story. This is not only in rural Saskatchewan. This is in rural Canada, period. T

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I think it would definitely help. We would welcome seeing that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You know what? I think it's something that would be a great idea. Yes, I think we would be supportive of that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it could be considered as an option. For people who have landlines, I think it's something that would be a good option. However, for people who use cellphones—and there are many people who live in rural areas who don't have landlines and rely on cellphones—the coverage is

Procedure and House Affairs committee  For some people, of course, it could be travel. A lot of the seniors who live rurally have challenges that way. We don't have great bus service anymore, between provincial and federal cutbacks, we've lost a lot of our bus lines. It would mean that people would most likely have to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We've seen that, and actually, we just went through a bad experience in Saskatchewan with their municipal elections. We had a blizzard, especially in the west side of the province, which affected even the Saskatoon area. That was the worst thing we've ever seen happen. It was alm

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that's something that could be considered because of course these are different circumstances. Things that we never thought would happen before are happening now.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, of course, we haven't been through a federal election yet, but as I mentioned, we've been through municipal elections and provincial elections. The mail-in ballots, I think, are the key to successful elections now, because people of course are concerned about COVID. One t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I think that's a fair statement. I think people are preparing. We're hearing a lot about a spring election, and I think our members would not be averse to that. I don't think it would deter people from voting if they had the option of mail-in ballots and, as I mentioned prev

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Ray Orb. I am the president of SARM. I was born and raised and live in a small community northeast of Regina with a population of 625 people. I'd like to thank the standing committee today. SARM represents all the 296 rural municipalities in

Finance committee  Of course, the livestock industry is under a lot of pressure right now because of the effects of COVID on some of the packing plants in Alberta. I know we're having conversations with our provincial agriculture minister next week. We have consulted with Minister Bibeau on this, t

Finance committee  Yes, particularly the propane that's used for grain drying. That's a big issue for some of our farmers.