The Bloc Québécois would very much have preferred to endorse the Committee’s report unreservedly, but unfortunately we are not entirely satisfied with the Committee’s conclusions on how to proceed with reform of the electoral system. While the Bloc Québécois Members of Parliament are not in Ottawa to defend the federal system, or to reform Canada’s electoral system, we accept that such reform is necessary.

The Bloc Québécois supports the recommendations for the striking of a special House of Commons committee, but we have concerns about the creation of a citizens’ consultation group. The Bloc Québécois recognizes the necessity of consulting the people of Quebec and Canada on any reform of the electoral system, but it deplores the lack of precision about such a group’s mandate and the way it should be set up. For the moment at least, it appears that the Committee has given the government a blank cheque to form the group however it likes.

For a very long time now, the Bloc Québécois has been criticizing partisan appointments of returning officers for federal elections. That is why we tabled Bill C 312, designed to make such appointments impartial. The Committee’s recommendations do not prevent the government from appointing members of the advisory group arbitrarily. Nor has the Committee indicated what the group’s mandate would be. The Bloc Québécois thus has no choice but to be sceptical about the creation of this citizens’ consultation group.

The Bloc Québécois supports most of the report’s recommendations, and especially those dealing with the striking and mandate of a special House of Commons committee, but it would have liked more time to determine how the consultation and direct participation of the public in the reform process are to be provided for. Quebeckers and Canadians have an important role to play, and the Bloc Québécois is afraid that giving the federal government carte blanche to decide how they are to be involved will defeat the whole purpose.

Michel Guimond, MP
Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord
Chief Bloc Québécois Whip