Procedure and House Affairs committee  The trigger is having been required to pay at least $200, so I believe in terms of the tickets, independent of the number of tickets bought, if buying at least one ticket of over $200 is required, then that would be caught. But if the amount of the ticket that is required to atte

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It seems like a very reasonable element to add to the bill, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, exactly. With a table of $500, if it's 10 tickets of $50, none of the tickets in order to attend are over $200, so my reading is that this would not trigger.... If any of the tickets are more than $200, then that would trigger the application of the rules.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct. My understanding is this bill is meant to capture situations where, in order to attend one of these events where a key decision-maker is present, at least one person who's attending has had to pay over $200.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that's for the committee to consider. I don't have a strong view on that. I think the purpose of the bill is to deal with situations where there's a concern over privileged access, and whether one of those situations, as you describe, that is currently not captured falls

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I've had the pleasure of speaking across different jurisdictions in Canada and abroad about our political financing regime. I've never said it was perfect, but I do honestly believe it is one of the better calibrated regimes that I've seen. I certainly would not envy any other re

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that's a very good point. The rules that we have here today for review by this committee are a good example of what I call a regulatory regime. This is not the stuff of criminal law. Certainly I would hope that if there was a regime for administrative monetary penalties,

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm happy to be here today to speak to Bill C-50. I will try to keep my remarks brief to leave as much time as possible for questions from the members. Bill C-50 has two main elements, both related to political financing. The first element is a new regime

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We'll need to test the systems. Of course, laboratory simulations will be conducted. Extensive testing must be conducted before the equipment is introduced at polling sites. We may have the opportunity to do so during a by-election. If the opportunity arises, we'll seize it, obvi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would hesitate to adopt the assumption that is underlying that question: that Elections Canada would intend to do that. I understand very well, however, the financial pressure that exists on parties, and that would be amplified in the case of expensive litigation. I think it's

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I must say that I find that question a bit difficult to answer, not having seen the contents of the legislation, and in particular, the CEO recommendations implementation bill. Clearly, any legislation that involves significant technology would require some time for implementatio

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have worked in the past, and we continue to work, with the Communications Security Establishment. It provides the standards that are appropriate for our services, and we rely on its expertise in terms of the level of security. It's our job to make sure that those standards are

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. I think that in terms of the success, we cannot look only at the participation rate. I think you make the very valid point that it was not just a voting opportunity. It was an engagement opportunity. We do know, based on our research, that voters who vote early will t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There were 40 on campuses and at friendship centres. They were mostly on campuses, I think. The vast majority at least were on campuses. We would be looking to expand that where possible.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, not at this point. For the most part, in the last election, those institutions that we engaged were responsive. There were a few cases where it was a challenge for various reasons, so we'll try again next time. We'll be happy to come back with some numbers when we're furthe