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Bill C-83

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First Reading

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	RECOMMENDATION
	His Excellency the Governor General recommends to the House of Commons the appropriation of public revenue under the circumstances, in the manner and for the purposes set out in a measure entitled ``An Act respecting the election of members to the House of Commons, repealing other Acts relating to elections and making consequential amendments to other Acts''.
	SUMMARY
	This enactment repeals and replaces the Canada Elections Act, updating its language, adding new provisions and reorganizing its content.
	Some new provisions of the enactment deal with election campaigns, including spending limits on third party election advertising, a blackout on election polls and election advertising on polling day and the day before polling day, a requirement that the methodology of a poll be published with the poll's results, the right of electors to post reasonable signage during a campaign and an enforceable right of candidates to campaign in multiple-residential buildings during reasonable hours.
	Finance provisions provide for a registered party that fails to nominate 50 candidates to keep its net assets subject to certain conditions. Reporting requirements for registered parties and candidates are improved. The enactment also provides for the disclosure of the names and addresses of campaign contributors of more than $200, and for the full refund to candidates of their nomination deposits when they submit their campaign returns.
	The enactment extends the franchise to returning officers and gives the Chief Electoral Officer the discretion to adjust voting hours for electoral districts that do not switch to Daylight Saving Time during the summer months. It also provides for voting hours in a by-election to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., local time.
	The enactment provides for an interim relief power, alternative penalties and compliance agreements for the resolution of contraventions.
	The enactment repeals the Dominion Controverted Elections Act and creates a process by which a court may declare election results void if serious irregularities have affected the outcome.
	The enactment also makes consequential amendments to the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, the Parliament of Canada Act, the Referendum Act, the Supreme Court Act and the Income Tax Act including increasing the cut-off for the political tax credit to $200 (from $100) for the 75% rate and repeals the Disfranchising Act and the Corrupt Practices Act.
	EXPLANATORY NOTES
	Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act
	Clause 556: Subsection 25(2) reads as follows:
	(2) For the purpose only of authorizing and enabling the appointment, pursuant to section 14 of the Canada Elections Act, of returning officers whenever required, the representation order shall be deemed to be in force effective on the day on which the proclamation declaring it to be in force was issued.
	Income Tax Act
	Clause 557: (1) Subsections 127(3) to (4.2) read as follows:
	(3) There may be deducted from the tax otherwise payable by a taxpayer under this Part for a taxation year in respect of the total of all amounts each of which is an amount contributed by the taxpayer in the year to a registered party or to an officially nominated candidate at an election of a member or members to serve in the House of Commons of Canada (in this section referred to as ``the total''),
	(a) 75% of the total if the total does not exceed $100,
	(b) $75 plus 50% of the amount by which the total exceeds $100 if the total exceeds $100 and does not exceed $550, or
	(c) the lesser of
	(i) $300 plus 33 1/3% of the amount by which the total exceeds $550 if the total exceeds $550, and
	(ii) $500,
	if payment of each amount contributed that is included in the total is proven by filing a receipt with the Minister, signed by a registered agent of the registered party or by the official agent of the officially nominated candidate, as the case may be, that contains prescribed information.
	(3.1) A receipt referred to in subsection (3) shall not be issued
	(a) by a registered agent of a registered party, or
	(b) by an official agent of an officially nominated candidate
	otherwise than in respect of an amount contributed and to the contributor of such an amount.
	(3.2) Where an amount contributed has been received by an official agent of an officially nominated candidate other than an officially nominated candidate in any of the electoral districts referred to in Schedule III to the Canada Elections Act, the official agent shall forthwith deposit that amount contributed in an account standing to the credit of the official agent in the agent's capacity as such in the records of a branch or other office in Canada of
	(a) a bank;
	(b) a corporation that is licensed or otherwise authorized under the laws of Canada or a province to carry on in Canada the business of offering to the public its services as trustee; or
	(c) a credit union.
	(4) In subsections (3), (3.1), (3.2) and (4.1), the terms ``official agent'', ``registered agent'' and ``registered party'' have the meanings assigned to them by section 2 of the Canada Elections Act and the term ``officially nominated candidate'' means a person in respect of whom a nomination paper and deposit have been filed as referred to in the definition ``official nomination'' in that section of that Act.
	(4.1) In subsections (3), (3.1) and (3.2), ``amount contributed'' by a taxpayer means a contribution by the taxpayer to a registered party or an officially nominated candidate in the form of cash or in the form of a negotiable instrument issued by the taxpayer, but does not include
	(a) a contribution made by an official agent of an officially nominated candidate or a registered agent of a registered party (in the agent's capacity as such official agent or registered agent, as the case may be) to another such official agent or registered agent, as the case may be; or
	(b) a contribution in respect of which the taxpayer has received or is entitled to receive a financial benefit of any kind (other than a prescribed financial benefit or a deduction pursuant to subsection (3)) from a government, municipality or other public authority, whether as a grant, subsidy, forgivable loan or deduction from tax or an allowance or otherwise.
	(4.2) Where a taxpayer was, at the end of a taxation year of a partnership, a member of the partnership, the taxpayer's share of any amount contributed by the partnership in that taxation year that would, if the partnership were a person, be an amount contributed referred to in subsection (3), shall, for the purposes of that subsection, be deemed to be an amount contributed by the taxpayer in the taxpayer's taxation year in which the taxation year of the partnership ended.
	Parliament of Canada Act
	Clause 558: Subsection 28(1) reads as follows:
	28. (1) If any vacancy occurs in the House of Commons by reason of the death of a member of the House or the acceptance of an office by a member of the House, the Speaker of the House shall forthwith, on being informed of the vacancy by any member of the House in his place or by notice in writing under the hands and seals of any two members of the House, address a warrant of the Speaker to the Chief Electoral Officer for the issue of a writ for the election of a member to fill the vacancy.
	Clause 559: Subsections 29(1.1) and (1.2) are new. Subsection 29(2) reads as follows:
	(2) A writ referred to in subsection (1) may issue at any time after the death or acceptance of office by a member.
	Clause 560: Subsections 30(2) and (3) read as follows:
	(2) The report of any judge appointed to try the previous election, or of the Supreme Court of Canada, in case of an appeal, shall determine whether the member referred to in subsection (1) or any other person was duly returned or elected at the previous election.
	(3) The determination made in accordance with subsection (2), if adverse to the return of the member, and in favour of any other candidate, voids the election held under the writ issued pursuant to section 29, and the candidate declared duly elected at the previous election is entitled to take a seat in the House of Commons as if no election had been so held.
	Clause 561: Subsection 31(3) reads as follows:
	(3) If Parliament is dissolved after the issue of a writ in accordance with this section, the writ shall thereupon be deemed to have been superseded and withdrawn.
	Clause 562: The relevant portion of subsection 63(3) reads as follows:
	(3) Subject to section 67, in addition to the expenses payable pursuant to subsection (1), there shall be paid to each of the members of the Senate and the House of Commons an allowance for expenses incidental to the discharge of the duties of the member,
	. . .
	(b) in the case of a member of the House of Commons,
	. . .
	(ii) at the rate of thirteen thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars per annum if the member represents any other electoral district listed in Schedule III to the Canada Elections Act, and
	Referendum Act
	Clause 563: Subsection 13(6) reads as follows:
	(6) For the purposes of subsection (5), the name of a party means
	(a) the full name of the party; and
	(b) any name, or abbreviation of a name, used to identify the party in election documents.
	Clause 564: The heading before section 29 reads as follows:
	RECOUNTS
	Clause 565: (1) Subsections 29(1) and (2) read as follows:
	29. (1) Her Majesty in right of Canada may, not later than ten days after the official addition of the votes has been completed in an electoral district, apply for a recount of the votes cast in the electoral district on a referendum question to a judge to whom an application for a recount may be made under the Canada Elections Act in respect of the electoral district.
	(2) Her Majesty in right of a province or any elector ordinarily resident in a province may, not later than ten days after the official addition of the votes has been completed in an electoral district in the province, apply for a recount of the votes cast in the electoral district on a referendum question to a judge to whom an application for a recount may be made under the Canada Elections Act in respect of the electoral district.
	(2) Subsections 29(5) and (6) read as follows:
	(5) The judge to whom an application is made shall order that the recount be carried out and shall appoint a time for commencing the recount, if the judge is satisfied that
	(a) votes cast in the electoral district on the referendum question may have been wrongly rejected, counted, added or reported; and
	(b) there is a reasonable possibility that, if the votes are properly rejected, counted, added and reported, the opinion of the majority of the electors in the electoral district who cast ballots on that question will be shown to be opposite to what it was shown to be by the original count.
	(6) A recount shall be commenced within four days after it was ordered.
	Clause 566: Section 30 reads as follows:
	30. Where, at a recount under section 29 of the votes cast on a referendum question, the judge is satisfied that either the electors who support the question or those who oppose it are not represented at the recount, any three electors who demand to attend on behalf of the electors who are not so represented are entitled to attend, but, except with the permission of the judge, no persons other than those who are by this section entitled to attend at the recount shall be permitted to attend.
	Clause 567: The definition ``referendum officer'' in subsection 32(1) reads as follows:
	``referendum officer'' means the Chief Electoral Officer, the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer and every returning officer, assistant returning officer, deputy returning officer, poll clerk, revising agent and registration officer, and includes any person having any duty to perform under this Act, to the faithful performance of which duty the person may be sworn.
	Supreme Court Act
	Clause 568: Subsection 59(3) reads as follows:
	(3) This section does not apply to any appeal in the case of an election petition.