Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I believe this motion is being distributed. Okay, committee. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the amendment. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also would like to speak in favour of this motion and I guess the election legislation not only for the NWT but I believe for the federal election too, are very clear about not having any signs, buttons, T-shirts, whatsoever that would express a particular candidate. I was thinking the same thing when Mr. Ramsay said there is no clear picture of the candidate, even more than a button than the candidate, him or herself. It’s just really strange to me when legislation prohibits even a display of signs within certain restricted areas, that we would not have a restriction of a candidate going into a polling station other than to vote. Candidates in the federal election, too, are allowed to have a number of agents and workers to scrutinize or whatever. So there is no question about candidates’ work being done through agents or a third party that they appoint, but I really think restricting -- and actually I would be interested in what is the main motion as to restricting -- but I will support this motion and I would also like to put on legislation be reviewed to make sure candidates are restricted in access as much as, if not more than, buttons and signs. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Next I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, I would hope that people would vote

against this motion because what I think it does clearly is it has a negative impact on being a candidate by being able to drop people off. If you are a candidate and you are called upon by an elder or a senior to bring those folks to the centre to vote, or whether it’s a community hall or community centre or whatnot, even though the polling station is buried within that building, you’re negatively impacted by bringing them up and into the entranceway. You would be violating this process and the rule by dropping them off. So without that clear definition, you would be in violation right then and there. So that’s why.

Now, can you imagine applying this Yellowknife sort of style of rule to a community when in a small community you don’t have the election machine to help organize and to go call two or three or 80 of your scrutineers to go pick up people?

So, again, it’s one of those things. You take away the grassroots element of an election ability of the candidate. On top of that, the reason the concept of brief visits came forward, it’s on the basis of the wording used in Alberta, and in Alberta the principle is you can bring people and drop them off. It’s meant to be reflective of “You Don’t Camp Out” at the station. You can bring people, drop them off and return them.

If I can further that with nowhere else including the federal government law through Elections Canada restricts candidates for dropping people off. This would now take a new unparalleled approach on how to do this. So ultimately, if people are worried about candidates campaigning, well that already exists, those laws. You cannot campaign whether you wear a button or not. You cannot campaign at a polling station anyway. So ultimately those rules already exist. This will now stop somebody from dropping folks off. So rules exist already and I would hope that Members of the Assembly here would consider committee’s recommendation to allow candidates to drop off voters and allow them to do their voting business and then be able to return them. Outside of this, it sort of sets up a premise that as a candidate, if I got phoned and asked if I could bring someone there, I would have to drop them off around the corner because I would be embarrassed to be seen in the area of dropping somebody off. I think it’s a very insulting process. If you are a small campaign, this significantly works against you.

As far as the incumbent factor, I have to say I disagree, only because the fact is you are never going to completely eliminate that no matter how you do this. This is based on an element of the candidate has the right to be able to drop people off and this motion or this amendment will negatively impact that. I don’t think you will see it as bad in Yellowknife, but you will see it horribly in the communities when, like I said, you have very few

volunteers and scrutinizers and whatnot to do those things. The candidate really needs, in a grassroots way, to do a lot of the work and this takes away that function. You are going to see an impact that way. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Next I have, to the amendment, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am fully in favour of the amendment to this recommendation to this motion. I have to disagree with my colleague, Mr. Hawkins. I don’t think this is going to have much of an impact at all on any candidate who wishes to drive voters to the polling station. I’d like to point out that the word that probably has the most impact in this motion is that we are saying “in” the polling station. So the candidate has to be absolutely within the inside of the polling station and most polling stations are in a community hall, they are in a gymnasium in a school. That does not restrict the candidate from picking up the voter, driving them to the front door of the community hall, they get out, they go do their vote, the candidate waits for them and drives them back to wherever they picked them up from. So I don’t see it to be as restrictive as Mr. Hawkins would lead us to believe.

I think most of the complaints that have had to be investigated by the Chief Electoral Officer in the last several elections have had to do with candidates in or around or close to a polling station and, as somebody pointed out, hanging out and shaking hands with voters as they arrive. So I think this is going to clarify some of the grey areas that we’ve had in and around polling stations and I fully support the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the amendment. Mr. Abernethy.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In closing on this amendment, I just want to respond to Mr. Hawkins’ comments. When we discussed this in committee, we talked about driving people to the polling stations, which is why we went with the word “in” as opposed to “at.” I don’t see this amendment limiting the ability of anybody taking anybody to the polling station. It does limit them from going in. I don’t believe any candidate has any business being inside a polling station other than to vote and if we leave this motion as is, we could go there for brief visits, which strikes me as a little on the insane side. I do believe this causes an unfair advantage to us, those of us who are here that choose to run again, given that we are more highly visible and recognizable to most other candidates and I think it would be inappropriate for us to be “in” the polling station, which is why we have gone with the word “in” and we have deleted “for brief visits.” Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to support the amendment as well. I don’t want to create any hardship for people in smaller communities perhaps where they don’t have a larger group of people helping them on election day or driving people to the polls or acting as scrutineers for them and those sorts of things. But by virtue of the fact that you cannot campaign on election day, to me to have the candidate in the poll where people are voting runs contrary to the principle of not campaigning on election day because, as Mr. Abernethy said, if you are the incumbent and you are highly visible and you are a high profile candidate, being the poll, what’s bigger, the candidate themselves standing there or…There is no sign allowed, there is no button allowed, but the candidate themselves can there. You know, how are you going to define brief visits? So I am going to support the motion for the amendment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the amendment.

Question has been called.

---Carried

The amendment to the motion is carried. I would like to now move back to the committee motion as amended, 24-16(3), which I believe has been distributed. To the motion as amended. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, I don’t know if anybody can answer this question, but I don’t know what “restrict” means. “Restrict the attendance of a candidate in a polling station.” There is a definition question there. Does that mean that…

Except to vote, okay. Okay. So you can only go there to vote, otherwise you’re not allowed to be there in a polling station, but you could be outside. I just want to say that these are really, really important principles. I think we have already said that, so I will be voting in favour of that. I just wanted to be clear about what that means.

Thank you. To the motion as amended.

Question has been called.

---Carried

The motion as amended is carried and we will move on. Mr. Hawkins.