PROC Committee Report

Section 45 of the Canada Elections Act requires that updated lists of electors are to be sent to Members of Parliament and, where requested, to registered parties that ran candidates in associated districts in the last election, every year by October 15. The Chief Electoral Officer suggests that this date be changed to November 15 given that the largest number of changes of address occurs in the summer months, and these changes are often not reported until September or October, providing insufficient time to enter the changes in the lists of electors.

The Committee supports this recommendation.

If the date by which an annual list of electors is to be provided to Members of Parliament and registered parties under section 45 (currently October 15) falls during an election period, that date may be extended by three months. The Chief Electoral Officer seeks an amendment to extend that period to six months. Since the parties already receive final lists of electors immediately following a general election, the rationale is that there is no need for the production of another list so soon after an election.

The Committee supports this recommendation.

The Chief Electoral Officer recommends the use of returning officers between elections for tasks involving updating the National Register of Electors.

The Committee conditionally approves this recommendation subject to a clarification of the additional costs involved.

Express statutory authority is sought to enable returning officers to update lists of electors on the basis of information in the National Register of Electors. Currently, there is only implicit authority for a returning officer to update electoral lists based on information received from the National Register of Electors.

The Committee supports this recommendation.

The wording of sections 55(3) and 56(e) of the Canada Elections Act makes it unclear whether provincial authorities are prohibited from using the provincial list of electors if information in the provincial list originally came from the National Register of Electors. The Chief Electoral Officer seeks an amendment to make it clear that neither section precludes the use of provincial lists of electors according to provincial law.

The Committee agrees with this recommendation.

Section 55 of the Canada Elections Act authorizes the Chief Electoral Officer to share electoral information in the National Register of Electors with provincial election authorities. He cannot, however, share information that has not been incorporated into the Register, thus restricting Elections Canada from sharing source or preliminary data. This data is useful, not only for provincial and territorial authorities in updating their registers, but it can also facilitate the updating or correcting of data held by Elections Canada, since provincial and territorial election authorities can confirm the data through their own verification processes. The Chief Electoral Officer seeks an amendment to the Act to enable him to share all the information from which he is authorized to update the Register.

The Committee has no objection to Elections Canada providing information from the Register of Electors, and preliminary data that has been collected but not yet been incorporated into the Register. Source data or raw data that is provided to Elections Canada, on the other hand, should not be made available to provincial or territorial election officials.

The Chief Electoral Officer recommends that the Canada Elections Act be amended to grant his office specific authority to share neutral address and geographic information with other government bodies. These kinds of information are developed and secured in the course of performing duties under the Act and the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, and include maps and comprehensive lists of addresses for the entire country.

The Committee is not persuaded of the need for such authority and, accordingly, rejects this recommendation.

The Chief Electoral Officer repeats a recommendation made in his 2001 report calling for an amendment to section 144 of the Canada Elections Act to require a written affidavit or solemn affirmation of eligibility from a potential elector at a poll where there is reasonable doubt about that person’s eligibility to vote.

The Committee supports this recommendation.

In section 6.1 of this report, the Committee goes further, and supplements this recommendation with a series of other proposals that seek to instill some confidence that individuals who attempt to exercise the right to vote are who they claim to be and are, in fact, eligible to vote.

The Chief Electoral Officer repeats a series of recommendations made in his 2001 report, Modernizing the Electoral Process. These recommendations are aimed at achieving some degree of equity among political parties in the availability of paid and free-time broadcasting during elections. The recommendations include: granting registered parties the right to purchase up to 100 minutes of paid time from each broadcaster at the lowest unit rate; and, a requirement on each broadcaster (as opposed to network) that accepts paid political advertising to apportion 60 minutes of free time in prime time equally among registered parties.

The Committee endorses these recommendations on the assumption that the registered political parties have been consulted and agreed with them.

The Canada Elections Act grants the Chief Electoral Officer only limited verification powers over candidate and nomination contestant returns and no effective review powers over the returns of registered parties, registered electoral associations, leadership contestants or third parties. In his report, the Chief Electoral Officer seeks statutory authority to conduct audits and reviews of the returns of all political entities that are subject to the Act. The powers sought are extensive and include:

• Power to examine any document that relates or should relate to the information that is or should be in the records of the political entity or its election return.
• Power to compel a political entity to provide any document or additional information.
• Power to enter premises and compel the occupant to provide required information or answer questions. Entry into a dwelling should be done only on consent or by ex parte warrant issued by a judge.
• Power to compel any person who is not a political entity subject to the Act to provide any information or document, with prior judicial authorization.

The Committee unanimously and strenuously rejects this recommendation as worded.

The Chief Electoral Officer recommends amending the Canada Elections Act to require registered political parties who receive an annual allowance under section 435.01 of the Act to submit a statement of volunteer labour provided to the party as part of its annual financial report to Elections Canada. This work constitutes a contribution to the party made by the organization employing the individual. This recommendation follows allegations made at the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities that a registered party benefited from the work of full-time volunteers who were on the payroll of an outside organization while the volunteer work was being provided to the party. In his appearance before the Committee on June 13, 2006, the Chief Electoral Officer indicated that some threshold could be established to trigger the reporting requirement — for instance, 40 hours a week.

Members of the Committee believe that, while well-intentioned, this proposal is not workable and, moreover, would have disproportionate and unintended consequences. It would impose an onerous burden on parties and other persons in order to comply with this proposal, and could deter people from becoming involved in the electoral process.

Members of Parliament, pursuant to a policy approved by the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons on March 30, 2004, are permitted to mail one page householders during the period they serve as Members of Parliament and up to 10 days after the dissolution of Parliament. The Chief Electoral Officer expressed concerns that householder mailings may constitute election advertising if they have the effect of promoting or opposing a registered party or the election of a candidate. Currently, such householder mailings do not constitute an election expense. It is recommended, therefore, that householder mailings during an election period that promote or oppose a political party or a candidate by means set out in sections 319 and 350(2) of the Canada Elections Act should be considered election advertising. An amendment to the Act is sought to explicitly define such advertising as an election expense.

This has been a problematic area in recent years, and the campaigns of some Members have been inadvertently caught. This issue arises because the legitimate interests of Canada’s electoral legislation intersect with the legitimate desire of elected MPs to communicate with the public. The Committee is of the view that this matter would be more appropriately dealt with by the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons. Accordingly, the Committee rejects the Chief Electoral Officer’s recommendation.

Extensions on the filing of candidates’ returns are currently permitted in cases of inadvertence, mistake, illness, death or misconduct by an official agent or employee. If a candidate does not ask for the extension prior to the deadline for the filing of the return or, where the request is made before the four-month deadline and he or she cannot demonstrate any of the established grounds for the extension, the candidate’s only recourse is to obtain a court order. The Chief Electoral Officer seeks to revise the process to minimize the need for recourse to the courts for filing late returns.

The Committee supports this recommendation as it seeks to minimize recourse to the courts.

In its appearance before the Committee on June 1, 2006, the Liberal Party of Canada expressed similar concerns about the inflexibility in the current process when a candidate is unable to submit the required financial reports following an election, and cited a number of examples of unfairness in the process.

An amendment to section 466 of the Canada Elections Act is sought to expressly establish the amount of the candidate audit fees as the amount of the audit expense, to a maximum of 3% of the candidate’s election expenses and $1500, whichever is less. The minimum audit fee would be $250.

The majority of the Committee supports this recommendation.

Chapter 5 of the Chief Electoral Officer’s report addresses a small number of technical drafting issues. In addition, an amendment is sought to section 117(2)(c) of the Canada Elections Act to require a party to have registered status within 48 hours after the close of nominations if the party is to be permitted to place the party’s name under the name of the candidate that it is endorsing. Currently, the Act requires that a party be registered at the close of nominations if its name is to appear on the ballot below the name of the endorsed candidate.

The Committee agrees with these recommendations.