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Message from the Chief Electoral Officer

Elections Canada must always balance the requirement to be ready to conduct an electoral event with the need to manage change and improvements to the administration of Canada's electoral framework. In recent years, those challenges and opportunities have been accompanied by another reality: Canadians have gone to the polls in federal elections three times since the summer of 2004. Each event brought a minority government and the uncertainty of the next election date – a situation that remains.

After the 40th general election on October 14, 2008, my agency returned to a complete state of readiness in September 2009. In the 2010–11 fiscal year, we will focus on four major areas: We will maintain our state of readiness for any electoral event called during the period, prepare administrative changes for electoral events called after the spring of 2011 and engage political entities and our other stakeholders in support of those changes. We will also continue to implement our strategic plan. One of our key administrative initiatives in the next fiscal year will be exploring the feasibility of adding the voter information card to the list of authorized documents that electors can use to prove their identity and address when voting.

The administrative changes are aligned with the priorities set out in our Strategic Plan 2008–2013; they also stem from the Report on the Evaluations of the 40th General Election of October 14, 2008, submitted to Parliament in June 2009. The latter served as a bridge between my statutory report, submitted after that election, and my recommendations report, which will be submitted to Parliament in spring 2010. As Parliament considers our recommendations for legislative change, we will look again at engaging our stakeholders in why these are critical for modernizing our electoral framework.

It has been two years since Elections Canada launched its current five-year strategic plan, with its objectives of trust, accessibility and engagement. We have made progress toward each of those goals and refocused some of our strategic initiatives to support them. In the coming fiscal year, we will concentrate on a smaller number of strategic initiatives. These include e-registration; exploring ways to reduce barriers to voting for students who live on campus, seniors residing in long-term care facilities and Aboriginal electors living on reserves; developing new creative content for our advertising campaign aimed at youth; and introducing further measures, such as the on-line tutorial modules, to facilitate the understanding of regulatory requirements by political entities and to promote compliance.

While our utmost priority is responding to external requirements, Elections Canada must not neglect its internal management capacity. This will be addressed by implementing the first full year of our new human resources strategy, which will focus for the upcoming fiscal year on our employees' professional development and improvement of our hiring approach. We will also incorporate more modern risk management practices into our decision-making processes.

During the 2010–11 fiscal year, Elections Canada will be analyzing the conclusions of its A-base review, an exercise that aims to ensure that the resources of the agency are aligned with its highest priorities and are sufficient to carry out its mandate. We will also complete two major initiatives to upgrade our information technology (IT) infrastructure: relocating our data centre to a more modern and robust facility and migrating our field applications to a new Web-based platform.

Finally, we will explore where we could work closely with our provincial and territorial electoral partners to improve elector services, reduce duplication and identify opportunities for cost savings.  For example, in 2010–2011, we will continue to leverage the experience of Elections Alberta and Elections BC as we develop our on-line voter registration service. We will also explore how we can collaborate with Elections Ontario in the areas of voting sites, IT infrastructure and outreach.

 

 

 

Section I – Agency Overview

1.1 Summary Information

Raison d'être

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, commonly known as Elections Canada, is an independent, non-partisan agency that reports directly to Parliament. Its mandate is to:

• be prepared at all times to conduct a federal general election, by-election or referendum
• administer the political financing provisions of the Canada Elections Act
• monitor compliance with and enforce electoral legislation
• conduct voter education and information programs
• provide support to the independent commissions in charge of adjusting the boundaries of federal electoral districts following each decennial census
• carry out studies on alternative voting methods and, with the approval of Parliament, test on-line voting processes for future use during electoral events

In fulfilling its mandate, Elections Canada appoints, trains and supports 308 returning officers and retains the services of 30 field liaison officers across Canada. It also maintains the National Register of Electors, which is used to prepare preliminary lists of electors at the start of electoral events, as well as electoral geography information, which provides the basis for maps and other geographic products used during electoral events.

The agency also:

• Registers political entities, including political parties, electoral district associations, candidates, leadership contestants, third parties that engage in election advertising and referendum committees.
• Administers the allowances, reimbursements and subsidies paid to eligible candidates, registered political parties and auditors.
• Monitors compliance with the Canada Elections Act, including compliance with political financing rules, during and between elections.
• Discloses information on registered parties and electoral district associations, registered parties' nomination and leadership contestants, candidates, third parties and referendum committees, including their financial returns.
• Recommends to Parliament amendments for the better administration of the Canada Elections Act. It does this by submitting a recommendations report after a general election as well as by providing expert advice when Parliament studies electoral reform.

In addition, the Chief Electoral Officer appoints the Commissioner of Canada Elections, whose mandate is to ensure that the provisions of the Canada Elections Act and the Referendum Act are complied with and enforced.

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture

Elections Canada has a single strategic outcome supported by the following Program Activity Architecture (PAA):

1.2 Planning Summary

The following information summarizes the agency's plans and priorities for the next three fiscal years.

Financial Resources ($ thousands)

2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
$121,821	$121,928	$121,934

 

Human Resources – Full Time Equivalent (FTEs)

2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
404	404	404

Program Activities in Support of the Strategic Outcome

The following chart summarizes Elections Canada's four key programs (mandated priorities), which complement our single strategic outcome.

Strategic Outcome: An electoral process that contributes to fairness, transparency and accessibility for all participants, in compliance with the legislative framework.

Mandated Priority (Key Program)	Forecast Spending 2009-10 ($ thousands)	Planned Spending ($ thousands)
		2010-11	2012-12	2012-13
Key Program 1 Electoral event delivery, political financing, and compliance and enforcement1	$43,594	$46,815	$47,157	$47,160
Key Program 2 Electoral event readiness and improvements2	$68,410	$41,582	$41,885	$41,888
Key Program 3 education and information, and support for stakeholders	$5,983	$8,514	$8,576	$8,576
Key Program 4	$88	$600	TBD*	TBD*
Internal Services	$28,879	$24,310	$24,310	$24,310
Total	$146,954	$121,821	$121,928	$121,934

¹Key Program 1 includes quarterly allowance payments to eligible political parties in accordance with the Canada Elections Act, the details of which appear in Section III.
²2009–10 Forecast Spending includes costs incurred to prepare for the 41st general election.
*Estimated costs not currently available; will be funded through Supplementary Estimates.

Contribution of Priorities to the Strategic Outcome

The following tables summarize the contribution of Elections Canada's operational program priorities and its management priorities to its single strategic outcome.

Operational Priorities	Type	Description/Plan for Meeting the Priority
Maintain a state of readiness to deliver electoral events	Ongoing	Our mandate requires the agency to be ready to conduct an electoral event at all times. To fulfill this priority, Elections Canada became fully ready to conduct an electoral event in 2009. We will be maintaining this state of readiness for any event called before spring 2011.
Make a number of changes to the administration of electoral events for events called after spring 2011	New	Our focus during the 2010–11 fiscal year will be on bringing administrative changes to the electoral process for events called after spring 2011. These changes are a result of evaluations carried out after the 40th general election. The engagement of political parties and entities is required to fulfill this commitment.
Complete the on-line tutorial for political entities	Previously committed to	In 2010–11, we will complete the development of the on-line tutorial modules for political entities to increase the accessibility of our training programs and knowledge of political financing rules.
Engage youth in the electoral process	Previously committed to	To fulfill this priority in 2010–11, Elections Canada will complete a baseline review of current research and develop a research action plan aimed at engaging young Canadians. We will also develop a new advertising campaign to encourage the participation of youth in the electoral process.
Support the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act commissions	Previously committed to	Our focus during 2010–11 will be on assessing and developing tools (including systems) required to support the revision of electoral boundaries, which is scheduled to start in the spring of 2012.

Management Priorities	Type	Description of Link to Strategic Outcome
Implement human resources strategy	New	Elections Canada recently launched its long-term human resources strategy and the 2010–11 fiscal year will see its first full year of implementation. The focus will be on providing employees with increased access to training and professional development as well as on improving our employee hiring approach.
Incorporate risk management into the senior management decision-making process	New	A more systematic approach will be developed to improve our decision-making process.
Renew IT infrastructure	Previously committed to	The focus in 2010–11 will be twofold: completing the relocation of our data centre to a more modern and robust facility, and finalizing the migration of our field applications to a new Web-based platform.

 

Risk Analysis

As the 2010–2011 fiscal year begins, Elections Canada faces various types of risks.

We continue to operate in the context of a third consecutive minority government, and we must remain ready to administer a general election, which could be called at any time. After the most recent general election, in October 2008, we returned last fall to a state of full readiness. Subsequently, while maintaining that preparation level, we shifted our attention to bringing a number of improvements to the administration of electoral events.

As the timing of the next federal election remains unknown, the plans that are set out in this report are based on no general election taking place during this fiscal year. Should one occur, our resources will focus on that event, and, as a result, we expect that many of our initiatives will experience additional delays. The possibility of a general election taking place during the next fiscal period means that Elections Canada will dedicate its resources to preparing for that eventuality and will have no capacity to devote to referendum readiness during that period.

During the 2010–11 fiscal year, a number of matters may affect Canada's electoral framework. Some are currently before the courts, and their eventual impact on our agency cannot be known at this time. (See Judicial Decisions and Proceedings under section III, Other Items of Interest.) We also continue to monitor the legislative agenda for potential electoral reform initiatives, particularly in the context of the report on recommendations for legislative change, which the Chief Electoral Officer will submit to Parliament in spring 2010.

In the coming fiscal year, Elections Canada will enter the third year of its 2008–2013 strategic plan. More than ever, we will need to engage and secure the support of parliamentarians, political entities and other stakeholders to further modernize the administration of Canada's electoral framework. This applies particularly to electronic registration (e-registration) and Internet voting as well as to administering and communicating the rules that apply to political entities – all areas in which we expect to be quite active this fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Elections Canada must continue to make progress in managing the pressures imposed by its external environment on its personnel and the resulting constraints when pursuing longer-term priorities. The A-base review currently underway is critical to establishing the appropriate level of resources for a stable and effective organization.

As other means to respond to management pressures, we will adopt modern risk-management practices to improve our decision making, focus our efforts on our highest priorities and encourage innovation. We will also move forward with our human resources strategy by investing in our employees, ensuring they are prepared and equipped to deal with external challenges and ensuring the sustainability of the agency.

Expenditure Profile

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer is funded by an annual appropriation, which provides for the salaries of permanent full-time staff, and by the statutory authorities set out by the Canada Elections Act, the Referendum Act and the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. The statutory authorities provide for all other expenditures, including the costs of electoral events, reimbursements of election expenses to eligible candidates and parties, quarterly allowances for eligible political parties, the costs of redistributing electoral boundaries and expenses incurred by the Commissioner of Canada Elections, or on his behalf, to enforce the legislation. There are two further statutory items: the salary of the Chief Electoral Officer and contributions to employee benefit plans.

2010-11 Forecast Spending³ by Key Program

For 2010–11, Elections Canada plans to spend $121.8 million to meet the expected results of the program activities that contribute to its strategic outcome. The following chart presents the allocation of funding by key program.

 

Voted and Statutory Items

The following table presents Elections Canada's voted and statutory items for the specified reporting period, as tabled in Parliament.

Vote # or Statutory Item (S)	Truncated Vote or Statutory Wording	2009-10 Main Estimates ($ thousands)	2010-11 Main Estimates ($ thousands)
15	Program expenditures	$27,397	$29,568
S	Expenses of elections	$87,316	$86,950
S	Salary of the Chief Electoral Officer	$265	$276
S	Contributions to employee benefit plans	$4,657	$5,027
Total		$119,635	$121,821

³Excluding event budget.

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