:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm really pleased to appear before you today to discuss our main estimates for 2007-08. I'm accompanied today by Mrs. Diane Davidson, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer; Ms. Janice Vézina, senior director of financial matters, audit, and corporate services; and Mr. Rennie Molnar, the senior director for operations, register, and geography.
Before I launch into my formal notes, which were distributed, I thought I would share some observations following 60 days on the job now. As you will recall, on February 20 I appeared for the first time before this committee. Following unanimous endorsement by you and by the House a few days later, I started in the position.
It's been a very busy two months, but also fascinating, I must say. I met with my predecessor on two occasions. He had the generosity to share his wisdom and hindsight on the electoral process. I also spent a day with my counterpart for Ontario, the chief electoral officer there. I met with his team to discuss matters of mutual interest. I was also a guest of Mr. Blanchet in Quebec for polling day, where I had the opportunity to observe the quartiers généraux and visit returning officers in polling locations to observe directly the unfolding of the election on that day.
I also took time to visit all staff at Elections Canada, introduce myself, and learn more about what their challenges were. I was struck by their commitment, professionalism, and dedication to do the right things and to do things right.
I also hosted two foreign delegations, one from the political parties of Morocco, which spent the day with us discussing matters of mutual interest. I also hosted a delegation from the Australian election commission. We had the opportunity to discuss matters of mutual interest, but especially STV, which is a new method provided by the bill for the appointment of senators.
I also attended several new Canadian forum sessions, where I had the opportunity to speak briefly about democracy and the electoral process. I spent 45 minutes in a question and answer session with participants at those forums. Each time I came out lifted by the quality of la relève and confident that the future of this country will be in good hands—I can assure you of that.
I also attended a meeting of first nations aboriginal youth with Mr. Phil Fontaine to discuss matters of interest on the electoral process, and more specifically participation of first nations people in the election process.
I met with the new returning officers who have been in training in preparation for a possible electoral event. I met with many assistant returning officers who were also in training; the field liaison officers who are set across the country to support returning officers; as well as the commissioner, staff, and a group of investigators he employs to carry on his responsibilities.
Throughout this I learned much about the institution itself and spent much time learning about the electoral process and the machinery of elections. At the same time, I made the decisions required to ensure that Elections Canada is ready to conduct an election whenever it's called.
After those 60 days, I can report that I've developed a strong feeling and sense of responsibility and accountability for Elections Canada. I have also developed an unabated enthusiasm for and commitment to the position. I have not had a chance to call a meeting yet of the advisory committee of political parties, but I plan to do so some time in June. Part of the agenda we'll propose will be to discuss the workings of the committee, its governance, mutual expectations, and how we can move forward in our future discussion.
Now, going back to the main estimates and my formal presentation, as you know, my office is funded by two separate budget authorities: an annual appropriation, which is called vote 15, that provides for the salary of permanent, full-time staff; and a statutory authority that funds all other Elections Canada expenditures. Vote 15, which is the component of our budget that you are considering today, amounts to $21.8 million. Again, this represents the salaries of some 330 full-time employees.
For its part, the statutory authority, which is a direct draw from the CRF, ensures that Elections Canada has the capacity to be ready at all times to conduct an electoral event. It also recognizes that Elections Canada's independence is critical to maintaining the integrity of the democratic process.
Of course, the estimates under the statutory budget authority for which I am accountable vary from one fiscal year to the next, reflecting the particular activities of the office. This includes the conduct of elections by election referendums, as well as support for the decennial redistribution of electoral districts.
Two other budget authorities are also statutory. The first is my salary as Chief Electoral Officer, and the second is the funding required for contributions to employee benefit plans. The statutory authority is essential to fund all the functions and duties related to the effective delivery of election and referenda. This is particularly relevant in the current situation when a second consecutive government has been elected for the first time in 40 years and only the second time in our history. This situation requires Elections Canada to continuously maintain a high state of readiness.
Just as it is impossible to predict the timing of an election, it is impossible to identify every exceptional circumstance that could arise during an election. Here the statutory draw is also essential, complementing the power under section 17 of the act to adopt the legislation.
The budget under the statutory authority of 2007-08 is $82.6 million. Including the annual appropriation, the total budget for Elections Canada will be $104.4 million.
The major items in our 2007-08 estimates, in addition to the salaries of permanent employees, include: political financing, including allowances to political parties, to the extent of $30.8 million, $28 million plus a bit more for the allowance; the information technology program, at $21.9 million; the national register of electors, at $8.6 million; public education and information programs, at $7.4 million; and employee benefit plans, at $4 million.
There is also another item for event readiness activities, at $1.7 million. As well, totalling some $8.2 million are other ongoing costs that essentially cover the salaries of terms and casual employees, temporary help, professional services, and other related matters.
Our preliminary estimated cost for the 40th general election, if it were called now, is some $219 million. We would have to add an estimated amount of $56 million to include the reimbursement of election expenses to Canada's political parties. This will bring the total cost of the election to $275 million, compared to $273 million for the previous election.
I'm happy to report that Elections Canada is ready to conduct a general election whenever it is called. Since December 2006, when the responsibility for appointing and dismissing returning officers was transferred to the Chief Electoral Officer, all three of the 2008 returning officers have been appointed, and their training will be completed by the end of the day tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we have had a small number of resignations. To address the gap, we have appointed and trained new returning officers from a pool of qualified candidates set in the earlier competition process. Currently we have three vacancies, and as provided for in the act, assistant returning officers are now currently assuming their duties until proper competitions can be conducted.
Since the 39th general election, returning officers have completed more than 20% of pre-event assignments. For example, they've located suitable offices across the country, assessed the accessibility of polling stations, identified key personnel to hire once the writ is dropped, and trained community relations officers. In addition, returning officers have planned how they will conduct target revision in their electoral districts, and they have made revisions to some 10,000 polling divisions, 800 mobile polls, and over 2,000 advance polling districts. These revisions were carried out in consultation with members of Parliament and local riding associations. In fact, revised maps and geographic documents reflecting these changes were distributed to registered parties and MPs last week.
During this fiscal year, Elections Canada will continue its preparations to ensure that all resources can be quickly mobilized at the start of an electoral event. We also continue to update the national register of electors. The quality of the register is measured in terms of both the coverage—the percentage of electors on the list—and the currency of the information on the list.
Our coverage target for the registry is 92% for coverage and 77% for currency. As of April 1, 2007, the estimated quality of the register resulting from various quality assessments showed the registry is meeting the 92% standard of national coverage and is in fact exceeding by 7% the currency target.
In 2007-08 we will continue to identify opportunities to further improve the quality of the list of electors, both in coverage and currency and in voter registration services. In fact, with the help of returning officers, we plan to improve the process and strategies to reduce the incidence of non-residential addresses in the register. We have developed an elector quality improvement system to improve incomplete and inaccurate elector records, and we will implement the generalized record linkage system developed by Statistics Canada, with the aim of improving record-matching and identifying electors' records to be included in mailings.
[Translation]
Since 2003-2004, my office has been the subject of annual financial audits by the Auditor General. Her reports have indicated that the transactions she has reviewed are in all significant respects in accordance with the legislative provisions of the Financial Administration Act as well as with the statutes administered by my office.
In addition, at the request of my predecessor, the Auditor General conducted a performance audit of Elections Canada resources, which was completed in the fall of 2005. While the Auditor General indicated some areas for improvement , she made many positive observations, citing the agency's ability to effectively plan, manage and administer the federal electoral process, and the key role it plays in supporting the fairness and transparency of elections.
To quote from her report briefly:
[Elections Canada] delivers a number of public education and information programs aimed at enhancing the understanding of the federal electoral process and increasing the participation rate of targeted groups of electors. We found that Elections Canada works effectively with Parliament and other stakeholders to identify ways of improving the electoral process.
As reported last year, Elections Canada acted promptly on the recommendations made by the Auditor General in her 2005 report. A number of priorities outlined in our current Report on Plans and Priorities follow up on her recommendations.
I would like to touch briefly on three other areas that will be priorities for Elections Canada. They were also the focus of my first appearance, on March 22, before the Advisory Panel for Funding and Oversight of Officers of Parliament, which is chaired by the Speaker of the House.
The first area is information technology. Elections Canada has an urgent need to renew its IT infrastructure to keep pace with evolving technologies and to use the new technologies in order to better meet the needs of Canadians and the requirements often arising from electoral reforms. Our hardware and software are aging, implementing changes is becoming difficult and we need to be in a position to offer more electronic services. Renewing our IT infrastructure will ensure that we are able to continue delivering electoral events efficiently. And it will enable us to respond effectively to our future needs and those of our stakeholders, including the need to respond to legislative change. We cannot afford to delay this process.
Our information technology renewal project began last year, and will continue into next. This year, our focus will be on replacing hardware and software. This involves some 4,000 computers, in every constituency, as well as the servers and all the technological equipment that the offices of returning officers need.
More than just replacing the equipment, we also want to create a new simplified infrastructure that takes full advantage of modern information and communications technologies to provide improved business capacity, maintain the reliability expected by our users and meet our requirements for the coming decade.
The second priority is performance measurement. The Auditor General noted that while Elections Canada has the core elements of a good performance measurement and reporting framework, it lacks performance targets and indicators for some of its key activities. I consider performance measurement indicators are an important, no, an essential part of my accountability. So we will get to work on establishing an updated performance framework for our organization, with indicators and data that will allow us to be more accountable for our results and to give priority attention to areas where we see that variances have been greatest.
The third priority that I would like to bring to your attention deals with human resources. As I mentioned earlier, Elections Canada has 330 indeterminate employees. We also hire a significant number of term employees, consultants and temporary staff to meet the ongoing requirements of the agency and to ensure high-quality service to Canadians and political entities.
Like many federal organizations, Elections Canada faces the challenges presented by a number of retirements in the next five years, and the need to design a succession and recruitment plan so that key staff will continue to have the specialized knowledge and experience that the organization needs.
As noted in our Report on Plans and Priorities, we will finalize a master human resources plan in the coming year. Among other things, it will ensure that we have a succession plan in place to maintain our high level of service delivery. Meeting these priorites—each of which requires long-term strategic planning and focus—will be challenging given the environment in which we currently operate.
At the present time, we must be ready to conduct an election at all times, since we are in a situation of consecutive minority governments. We must also adapt to the effects of electoral reform in two directions at the same time: upwards; as we prepare for these reforms, we must always be ready to provide advice on the proposals that are put forward, and downwards; we must also be ready to analyze the effect of new legislation and to implement it.
Taken together, these challenges are hindering our ability to implement the recommendations of the Auditor General in the most diligent way. They also affect our ability to meet the statutory obligations and stakeholder requirements when, or as diligently as, we would like. As long as we must keep our attention on the shifting realities of the present, we cannot put adequate focus on longer-term priorities. This is why, in the next few weeks, I will be submitting a proposal for additional resources to Treasury Board. This is in order to improve the capacity of the organization to better deal with the various immediate pressures that the organization finds itself under, including the need to improve long-term planning and maintain the viability of the organization into the future. This proposal will be made to the parliamentary oversight panel a little later this spring.
This concludes my presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Mayrand, and your colleagues. Let me first say congratulations to Elections Canada for the fine reputation it has within the country, but also globally. Congratulations to you for the very rapid way in which you familiarized yourself with the operations of the office and the responsibilities, including your meetings with stakeholders.
I will be focused, but I won't necessarily be short. I had three particular questions that I wanted to put to you. One is with respect to the very hard-won and honoured high reputation of Elections Canada around the world. Your predecessor, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, developed a reputation for Elections Canada as an advisor in situations of emerging democracies, helping create electoral commissions, overseeing the registration of voters, and then monitoring the elections themselves.
With respect to the estimates, I'm wondering, first of all, whether this is a practice that you favour and would like to continue, and if so, and in any event, where the funding for this type of activity shows up in the estimates. Is it from specific CIDA allocations, or is it something within your internal budget?
The second question is with respect to your meeting with the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which, I was very pleased to see, was one of your first meetings.
In the discussions around the bill concerning voter identification, which went to the Senate and actually is now back in the House—some of our major concerns were the lack of registration of people in first nations communities; their voter ID; and the status cards, which, although they have a picture, don't have an address. I wonder if that's something you have taken up or will take up with the national chief to ensure that, at the band level at least, the cards are improved to include the address if it's on reserve or wherever, or if, at least through the band management, letters confirming the address could be made readily available. That could perhaps also assist in encouraging a greater percentage of registration, simply through that process of familiarity.
The third point was with regard to your mention of electoral reform. With respect to that, have you or your colleagues had the opportunity to review the Law Commission of Canada's report of the spring of 2004, which recommends to the Government of Canada a mixed member proportional electoral system? Anyone I have encountered who has considered that report understands it to be one of the most thorough pieces of research on public consultation in the Commonwealth. Is that something you're preparing for as we go forward, at the provincial level and possibly at the federal level, with electoral reform?
First of all, congratulations on your appointment. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for coming to the committee today.
I have a couple of questions related to the estimates in terms of where the priorities are. Having listened to your presentation, where you talked about performance targets, I am very concerned. Elections Canada, overall, is a terrific organization. You have, as has been said, an incredible reputation both nationally and internationally. But I have concerns about performance targets and making sure the system we have is based on real voter accessibility for all people, based on their socio-economic indicators.
I too have a question about Bill . It has gone through the House. The former CEO has been quoted in the press as estimating that up to 5% of the voters who show up at the polls could possibly lose the right to vote because of these new rules. You have mentioned briefly this new voter ID that will be required, and I know you met with representatives in the aboriginal community. But to me it is a given that of course Elections Canada will strive to make sure that people are registered. Maybe for 80% of the population that's a very easy thing to do, through income tax filing or through public announcements. But it's that last 10% or 15% or 20% of people who, for various reasons—they don't have addresses, they are homeless, they don't have ID, or they move around a lot—are the most difficult to get.
When you talk about performance targets, I'd like to know whether they include this, because I am very concerned that under this new, rigid requirement for voter identification there will be many people who lose the right to vote. I would like to know what Elections Canada intends to do to ensure that doesn't happen, and if someone hasn't been registered, to make your best effort to register them for sure.
When it still hasn't happened, what will happen on election day or in advance polls when those people show up and have to go through this ridiculous vouching system, where we have to find another person in the same poll who is registered and who has the right ID to vouch for one other person? It's going to create havoc in communities such as mine, in Vancouver East.
That is one question I'd like you to respond to.
This is the second one. It took me a long time to twig to the fact that there's systemic discrimination, I believe, in the way we do election spending, in that the election spending for each riding is based on the registered voters list. To take two ridings in Vancouver—Vancouver Quadra, which is a very affluent riding, and my riding, Vancouver East—the former probably has the highest number of voters in Vancouver and I probably have the lowest. Because our electoral spending is based on that—It's level for all the parties within that riding, which is good—it would be terrible if it weren't, so I agree with that—but, for example, my spending limit could be $20,000 less than that of some of my colleagues in other ridings.
It comes back to this question of who's on the voters list. It's taken me years to realize that it actually is a systemic issue that even impacts the level of election spending that can take place from riding to riding, which can produce huge variations.
I don't know whether you're aware of this or whether you have any suggestions about how to deal with it, but it may be something that requires an amendment at some point. It is systemic discrimination that exists within the system.
I have with me, Johanne Gauthier, who is the new general counsel with our office.
I appeared in front of the committee on February 8, 2007. Since then we have been busy, and I can give you a brief update on our activities.
We've engaged Ms. Gauthier, who has a strong management background. She is formerly with the Military Police Complaints Commission and is a former winner of the Public Service Award of Excellence in management. So we have a strong management component with our office now.
This has allowed our long-serving general counsel, Johanne Massicotte, who you may have met, to take advantage of a pre-retirement program.
We are in the process of transforming two key employees who were with us on secondment into indeterminate positions. One has a strong litigation background, having been a former Department of Justice prosecutor, and the other is very knowledgeable in the intricacies of the Canada Elections Act, which is still somewhat of a mystery to me.
We're working with the CEO to reduce the number of unnecessary referrals from Elections Canada. We're going to work on some standards for referrals. You may have noted the huge amount of paperwork that seems to come our way.
We're also working with the CEO with regard to resourcing for our office. If I had my way, I'd have some full-time investigators available to me, with particular skill sets that I think will be necessary for the future, and possibly a forensic accountant.
We have recruited some new contract investigators, and we're aiming for people with experience in financial matters, financial investigations. And we're continuing our update of the investigators' manual.
We have developed a workplan for the office for 2007-08. Ms. Gauthier will be responsible for it. It's quite ambitious and it certainly is comprehensive. It's been discussed with the CEO. We're already acting according to it, and I can make it available to you.
To ensure our readiness for the next election, we've held a training seminar in Ottawa this week for our contract investigators. This was attended by 37 investigators, mostly field investigators. It was a very positive experience, and it gave me a chance to meet many of them for the first time and to address my expectations of them. We're well deployed across the country with capable investigators presently.
The agenda and course materials are also available to you, should you be interested.
As you know, I must act independently in making decisions and maintain the confidentiality of matters under investigation by the office. This reflects my obligation of fairness to anyone dealing with the office and for the privacy interests of individuals.
Please accept that I am constrained in responding to some questions since to do otherwise would have a serious impact on the ability of our office to carry out its responsibilities.
:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good day, Ms. Gauthier, Mr. Corbett. I assure you that I'm not on a witch hunt. I have nothing against staff, management or the organization. I spoke to you about this when you last were here. I simply want some assurances that the provisions of the Elections Act are being upheld and that what happened in my riding and elsewhere won't happen again.
I've brought with me the letters that you were sent during the last election. Your file on the riding of Drummond is no doubt quite voluminous, because complaints have been filed in connection with each of the last five elections.
I'd like to briefly review our experiences, because sections 481 and 482(a) of the Elections Act were clearly violated. At the advance polls on January 13 and 14, a group of Liberal party members were systematically intimidating voters at the entrance to the polling station. A group member was trying to convince voters not to cast their vote for me, a registered candidate. The returning officer warned the group to cease their actions. An elderly woman even asked me to accompany her when she exited the polling station because she was afraid. We received several complaints from voters about this situation and these are included in your file. The returning officer even asked us to file a complaint on January 15, to ensure that everything went smoothly on January 16 and January 23.
On March 2, we received a letter from the Commissioner of Canada Elections. Your staff apparently contacted the Liberal Party's legal counsel. He assured you that the individuals named in the complaint would be contacted. Your office proceeded to contact the returning officer to get her version of the facts. The letter that we received concluded that it was impossible to find beyond a reasonable doubt that an offence had been committed. This letter was signed by Ms. Johanne Massicotte, who is now retired.
Are you aware of the riding organizer's actions? He accused me of making an unfounded complaint, of indulging in political muckraking. His accusations were reported by all of the newspapers. I learned that the person charged with investigating the complaint had called the candidate and simply asked if the statements issued were true. The candidate maintained that the statements were false and that we were just imagining things. The investigation ended there.
I've read sections 48, 166(1)(c) and 482(a) of the Canada Elections Act. In my opinion, these provisions are useless because the facts cannot be proven. Section 482(a) reads as follows:
(a) by intimidation or duress, compels a person to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate at an election;
We have witnesses. The current legislation is useless because your office is not interesting in ensuring compliance. We would have needed to videotape the individuals outside the polling station. I was the candidate, and she even grabbed my arm. She was grabbing everybody by the arm and telling them to vote for her candidate because he was the better choice. Her actions smacked of outright intimidation.
What evidence should I have supplied to justify my complaint? What procedure do we need to follow to get some results? I'm not the only person who was targeted, and mine is not the only riding to have encountered this problem.
The returning officer was appointed by an opposing party, but she is an honourable individual. She herself was really surprised. She was intimidated by this man throughout the electoral process. She filed complaints with the Chief Electoral Officer. Yet, this man is still around and will resume his intimidation tactics.
We're not sure how to deal with this situation. The letter that we sent you is signed by Élisabeth Jutras, who is a lawyer.