open Secondary menu

Advisory Committee of Political Parties – Meeting Summary – June 18 and 19, 2018

3. Legislative Updates – Voter and Political Entity Services

Anne Lawson, General Counsel and Senior Director, Legal Services and Trevor Knight, Senior Counsel, Legal Services, provided the first of a two part summary of the amendments to the Canada Elections Act proposed in Bill C-76 Footnote 1. The presentation explained that Bill C-76 involves partial implementation of 116 of the 132 recommendations made by the former CEO in the 2016 Recommendations Report, for which ACPP was consulted. They further noted that Bill C-76 incorporates all of the amendments proposed in Bill C-33. Presentation topics included key changes to:

  • voter services (e.g. election officers, definition of polling station)
  • electoral processes (e.g. fixed election period, voter identification, candidate services, election officer appointment, accessibility, etc.)
  • special voting rules (e.g. early voting, transfer certificates, international electors, etc.)
  • additional substantive amendments (e.g. Register of Future electors, voting technology)

On voter service improvements, members asked for clarification on what the bill said about the lowering the age of registration, hours of operation for advance polls, and about services to voters who have been out of the country for more than 5 years. There were also questions about mobile polls in remote areas and there was a recommendation to make these more widely available in remote indigenous areas.

On political financing, there were question on the removal of the $1,000.00 deposit for candidates, new auditing requirements and role of the auditor, as well as enforcement of campaigning rules. There were also questions on voter lists, pertaining to the inclusion of gender data. EC clarified that under the bill, gender will not be included on the voter’s list; but that EC will data will continue to be collected for statistical purposes. Other questions involved requests for the expansion of electronic services and products (including maps and bingo sheets). Members also expressed interest in electronic submission of nomination papers, in the context of the new bill and planned roll-out of the Political Entities Service Centre (PESC).

There were questions on the changes to the nomination process. Members expressed interest in obtaining more information from EC on updates to the process for providing proof of a commonly known name and endorsing candidates. The CEO informed committee members that the revised nomination package would be shared with them upon passing of the new legislation.

Footnote 1 Bill C-76 was still under parliamentary review at the time of the AGM.