Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault will appear before the House Affairs committee to testify on a meeting he attended with the Liberals and NDP to discuss rewriting the Elections Act, a meeting that some Conservative MPs have criticized as “unusual.”
“Elections Canada was asked to attend a meeting in Ottawa to provide its technical expertise. The Chief Electoral Officer answered questions,” a spokesperson from Elections Canada told Blacklock’s Reporter, saying that Perrault will testify on what was said at the meeting.
“He looks forward to sharing his perspectives” with the committee, the spokesperson added.
The meeting occurred on Jan. 25 in the Parliament Hill Office of Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, according to Blacklock’s, and was attended by Perrault and representatives from the NDP and the Prime Minister’s Office. The parties discussed Bill C-65, An Act To Amend The Canada Elections Act, which was introduced in the House of Commons weeks later.
Conservatives have
raised concerns that proposed amendments to the bill change the date of the next federal election from Oct. 20, 2025, to Oct. 27, 2025, and questioned whether the change is motived by pension qualification for some MPs.
The Tories have argued the move would ensure parliamentary pensions for dozens of MPs who were first elected in 2019, many of whom are not forecast to be re-elected. The Members of Parliament pension plan states that MPs 55 years of age and older qualify after six years of service, but the original election date would mean MPs elected on Oct. 21, 2019, would fail to qualify.
While section 1 of the Elections Act stipulates that a general election must be held on the third Monday of October, the Liberals have said an adjustment is needed because many communities will be celebrating the holiday of Diwali at that time.
Conservative MPs on the House Affairs committee have accused the Liberals and NDP of coordinating on the bill to secure pensions for their MPs and questioned why no Conservative or Bloc Québécois MPs were invited to participate.
Liberal MPs on the committee have dissented, with
Mark Gerretsen arguing the Conservatives were presenting a “partisan narrative” and Sherry Romanado noting that several Conservative MPs elected in 2019 would also benefit from Bill C-65.
During his opening statement before the House Affairs Committee on Nov. 7, Leblanc said he had “taken note” of his colleague’s criticisms of the bill, and said the government would respect “the will of this committee should there be a desire to amend the legislation and move the date forward even further, or move it back to the October 20 date.”
Leblanc added that the legislation included measures that would safeguard Canada’s elections, such as protecting voters’ personal information, improving accessibility for disabled voters, and extending existing bans on foreign influence and misleading publications so that they apply at all times and not just during elections.
