Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we're still in the midst of the count. We had what was called our second preliminary count this past week. During that time, we began to count the vote-by-mail ballots. Now, this coming Saturday, we will count the rest of those ballots. These are form B ballots, as you ment

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We in Saskatchewan have not had the experience with voting by mail that British Columbia has had in the past. They have had four events, kind of practising for this event. Our numbers have gone from 1% of individuals participating to about 12.5%, so there was a significant incre

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I did spend a lot of time messaging in advance that it was quite likely that some of our older workers who had traditionally worked for us would not be able to work for us because of COVID-19 and the concerns over a health hazard. As a result, I focused very much on messagi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. As you know, under normal circumstances, an election management body's job is not necessarily to get the vote out—at least, not in Saskatchewan. It is to reduce barriers for all voters so that they have access to the ballot. That's something we've worked on for many y

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have read Mr. Perrault's report, and one of the things being asked for is that he be able to adapt the process. That was something I was provided with through regulatory changes. I would be allowed to adapt the process. I wasn't allowed to change the process. I think that was t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Being from Saskatchewan, you will know that while my office's mandate is really focused on barriers to voting and on how we can lower those barriers for everyone, I have also done a fair amount of writing on this topic, in op-eds and elsewhere, to voice my concern about that dimi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What I would suggest is that we be very careful not to place the responsibility on the election management body for increasing the level of turnout. I think academics and thought leaders across the country will tell you that it would be a losing effort. However, here in Saskatc

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's not a problem. As I mentioned, “Voting safely is our priority” was part of our advertising campaign from the very beginning. We had the advantage of having an election date set in legislation, unlike in B.C. We began that campaign on August, 15 and it was integrated into ev

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Saskatchewan is perhaps a microcosm of Canada in that it is very diverse as well. Overall, we did have one single message that was going out to voters across the province. As time moved on, we had to adapt. For example, with the Peter Ballantyne first nation, we had to direct o

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I mentioned the ability to adapt being in our legislation, but not the ability to change. I think that was one of our real challenges, unlike in B.C., where they did allow for telephone voting. I could not introduce telephone voting or any other kind, so there has to be a recogni

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. We sent out ballots, and they were received. We're now at 55,000.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is 12.6%.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is 12.6%.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say that the strategy that we pursued.... Again, we had a legislative election date, so we were able to begin planning—not well in advance, but we were able to sustain the turnout rate.