Bill C-16: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (expanded voting opportunities) was introduced in the House of Commons by the Hon. Peter Van Loan, PC, MP, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, and received first reading on 1 November 2007.
Bill C-16 was previously introduced in the House of Commons in the 1st Session of the 39th Parliament as Bill C-55. As of prorogation, Bill C-55 had received second reading and had been referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. Pursuant to a motion adopted by the House on 25 October 2007, the Hon. Peter Van Loan informed the House on the date of the introduction of Bill C-16 that it was in the same form as Bill C-55 at the time of prorogation. The Speaker being satisfied that this was the case, Bill C-16 was deemed read the second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
Bill C-16 makes various amendments to the Canada Elections Act(1) (“the Act”). It increases from three to four the number of advance polling days and increases the number of polling stations open on the last day of advance polling.
As its title suggests, the objective of Bill C-16 is to increase voter participation.(2) It builds upon the increasing use of advance polling by Canadian voters. Since 1997, the percentage of voters who cast their vote in advance polls increased from 5.4% in 1997 to 6% in 2000, 9.2% in 2004 and 10.5% in 2006.(3) Bill C-16 is based on the premise that additional advance polling days will increase voter turnout, which has been declining since 1988 (see Table 1). The sponsor of bill, during the study of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on Bill C-55, enumerated a number of studies on which the bill was premised.
|
Date of the Election
|
Voter Turnout (%)
|
|---|---|
|
21 November 1988 |
75.3 |
|
25 October 1993 |
69.7 |
|
2 June 1992 |
67.0 |
|
27 November 2000 |
64.1 |
|
28 June 2004 |
60.9 |
|
23 January 2006 |
64.7 |
Source: Elections Canada.(4)
Bill C-16, as it was introduced in the House of Commons, sought to add two advance polling days to those already provided for under the Act: the Sunday that is the 8th day before polling day, and the Sunday just before polling day. This last advance polling day would have been a special advance polling day where all polling stations that are to be open on polling day would also have been open. However, the bill was amended at committee stage and this last day of advance polling was removed. As a result of Bill C-16, there will be four consecutive advance polling days on the 10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th days before polling day – Friday to Monday the week before the election.
Sections 171 and 172 of the Act, which provide rules on the conduct of advance polls and with regard to the notice of advance polling, will be replaced by new sections 167.1 and 167.2 (clauses 5 and 6).(5) These two provisions substantially mirror former sections 171 and 172, but are placed at the beginning of Part 10, Advance Polling.(6) New sections 167.1 and 167.2 differ slightly from former sections 171 and 172 in that they refer to the new additional advance polling day, Sunday the 8th day before polling day.(7)
Consequential amendments are made to sections 175(2) (close of advance poll), 175(4) (reopening of advance poll) and 175(6) (candidates may check seals on ballot boxes) to reflect the addition of an advanced polling day (clause 7).(8)
Prior to Bill C-16, the official list of electors for each polling division had to be prepared on the 3rd day before polling day. Amended section 106 changes this timeline by providing that the list shall be prepared as soon as possible after the 7th day before polling day (just after the first four advance polling days) and no later than the 3rd day before polling day (clause 3).
Clause 9 amends section 289(1) of the Act by replacing the reference to section 172(a)(iii), which is repealed by clause 6, with a reference to new section 167.2(a)(iii), which is added by clause 5, with regard to the place where the votes cast on advance polling days are counted.
Bill C-16 comes into force three months after it receives Royal Assent, unless the Chief Electoral Officer publishes in the Canada Gazette a notice to the effect that the necessary preparations for the bringing into operation of the bill have been completed, in which case they come into force on the day said notice is published (clause 13).
Bill C-55, upon its introduction in the House of Commons during the 1st Session of the 39th Parliament, had received little media attention. Most of its coverage merely restated the intent of the bill and paraphrased its main provisions. An editorial comment from The Globe and Mail referred to it as being unexpected and called for the members of Parliament to pay rigorous attention to its clauses and to endorse the bill unless they find that it contains significant flaws.(9) Bill C-16 has received almost no media coverage since its introduction on 1 November 2007.
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