Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly, the way the Elections Act reads now, there are some individuals who have information, say the Director of Medical Insurance, deputy minister responsible for student financial assistance, deputy minister of Justice, and they're named in the legislation. The Chief Electoral Officer recommended that there would also be additional information in the motor vehicle registry that would be very helpful in keeping our voters lists up to date. We are proposing some more general language so that the Chief Electoral Officer can acquire that data, with appropriate...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In the last election in 2019, what happened was that voting in the Office of the Returning Officer opened up the very next day after the nominations were cleared and accepted. If you did go in, you were given a slip of paper where you had to write in the candidate's name. That ballot doesn't look a lot like what you actually get if you go to the poll on election day.

This is to allow for a few more days to make sure that the proper ballots can be put together so that everybody is voting using the same ballots. This was raised by Mr. Wasylciw, as well, so I want to give him...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that "email address" be included under section 54(2) of the Elections and Plebiscite Act; and further, that email addresses should only be used to maintain or update the register of electors and not be shared with any candidate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This was raised by the Chief Electoral Officer in her report, but speaking personally as a candidate in a couple of elections and having heard from my official agent, and I have heard this from some other official agents and candidates, not being able to file your financial report electronically makes it difficult, particularly for folks from smaller communities sometimes. There is a deadline in which you have to get your report in. I think this is just to provide for the same level of accountability but just make it easier to get the proper information in the hands of the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that Elections NWT implement and administer an election rebate program as laid out in the report for candidates starting with the 2023 territorial election. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This arises from a recommendation from the Chief Electoral Officer. After the vote is finished and the vote count starts, this is really about who should be there to witness the counting of the ballots. The Chief Electoral Officer raised a couple of issues in her report and in discussion with us that, sometimes, candidates don't have anybody at a poll when the count is being conducted. It is up to the Chief Electoral Officer or the Returning Officer to go and find a couple of electors to witness it. It puts them in a difficult position. They have to choose somebody, maybe...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Chief Electoral Officer and I think even our staff found a few inconsistencies in the legislation itself, some cross-referencing and things like this that should be cleared up. Those are detailed in the report, and I'm not going to drag people through those. That's what this recommendation is about, is some housekeeping clarifications that are required in the act. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chair, just very briefly, the committee heard from two expert witnesses. Dr. Essex is from Western University and Dr. Nicole Goodman is at Brock University. They've been watching online voting in Ontario for the most part, and it's been used at the municipal level there for several years. They've also been watching how online voting has been used in other parts of the world, and they actually worked together on a paper, although they don't always agree on everything. It was a very helpful paper, and they've suggested a number of principles that should be adopted in terms of online voting...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. We had this issue raised with us by a member of the public, Mr. Wasylciw, and he said that it may be more convenient if someone's travelling away from their home within the Northwest Territories on polling day, where they could go in and cast their vote in any poll, not just where they necessarily live. Certainly, I know from personal experience, one of the federal, last federal elections, I cast a vote in Winnipeg, I was visiting our daughter, for candidates in the Northwest Territories. It's something that is done at the federal level. We also recognize that this might...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Now, I'll go through a series of motions which are the recommendations from the report itself.