Procedure and House Affairs committee  I only would link that to the previous comment that was made about a minister being able to come more or less at the last minute, so the longer the notice is, the more likely it is that you'll be caught in a situation where there is uncertainty in terms of who is going to be part

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. We have covered the first two, and I am down at the third one with respect to the new provision, 384.5. This is something I did address in my opening remarks. There may be situations where there is a missing element in the report and the CEO should have the authority

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is my pleasure to assist the committee in its study of the creation of an independent commission responsible for leaders' debates. I have been following the proceedings of the committee and am pleased to provide input from the perspective of Elections C

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As soon as participation is regulated, Charter arguments can arise, saying that the rules are inadequate, either in terms of having the right to vote and being eligible to vote, or in terms of freedom of expression, whatever. I believe that those discussions should be held outsid

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Should the Chief Electoral Officer have the power to force the leaders to show up? That question has been raised several time, unless I have misunderstood you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think your question shows why that cannot be the role of the Chief Electoral Officer. It is not up to the Chief Electoral Officer to exclude participants from a debate in the middle of the election campaign.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. That is something that my presentation today has to make very clear. It cannot be the responsibility of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would be inclined to suggest that the first order of business would be that if you're going to create a commission to start with the leaders' debate, it's quite a task to deal with the full magnitude of an all-candidates' debate in all 338 ridings. That said, a commission cou

Procedure and House Affairs committee  To me that's a very different matter. The broadcasting arbitrator sits under the umbrella of the Canada Elections Act. It operates completely independently from the Chief Electoral Officer and is appointed, as I've said, by unanimous agreement of the parties in the House. There's

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not in a position to comment on what happened in 2015 in terms of the debates, whether they met anybody's standard or expectation. You've heard from a number of witnesses on that point. I'll leave it at that. These I put forward as objectives, not as criteria that must be me

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Maybe I wasn't clear in my explanation. I don't think that the commission or commissioner should have the role of establishing the criteria. I think it's preferable for Parliament to decide what the criteria are, and that the commission or commissioner simply have a role in a fai

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I guess it would depend on the model that you choose. You could conceivably do it through that mechanism if you are to enrich, for example, the mandate of the broadcasting arbitrator. There may be stand-alone legislation as an alternative option.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The broadcasting arbitrator is episodic in the same way, so he's not paid full time. He's paid on a per diem basis. A similar model could be used here.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Essentially, because the debates get into the choice of substantive issues, and who gets to present and in what order, and who sits between who, and who is asking the questions and how they're being asked, all these issues are deeply within the hot issues of the campaign. We all