Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of the Citizen Voting Act

In the most recent Weekly Checklist of federal government publications,  there is a link to a legislative summary of Bill C-50, the Citizen Voting Act:

"The bill modifies the conditions that Canadians living abroad must meet in order to vote in a federal election. It also provides mechanisms to help Elections Canada remove the names of non-citizens from the National Register of Electors. It does so by:

• eliminating the register of electors who temporarily reside outside Canada and incorporating the information found in it into the Register of Electors;
• requiring Canadian electors who reside abroad to apply for registration and a special ballot after the writs are issued at each federal election and stipulating that electors may only receive a special ballot for the address at which they last resided in Canada;
• requiring applicants for a special ballot who reside in Canada or who temporarily reside outside Canada to include proof of identity and residence (and proof of Canadian citizenship for those applying from outside Canada) in their application for registration;
• requiring an external auditor to report on election workers’ compliance with special ballot voting procedures and requirements for every election;
• authorizing the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to provide the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) with information to help the CEO to delete the names of non-citizens from the Register of Electors; and
• adding the offences of attempting to vote by special ballot while knowing that one is not qualified to vote (electors temporarily residing outside Canada and electors residing in Canada), improperly attesting to the residence of more than one elector and attesting to the residence of an elector when one’s own residence has been attested to."

It is possible to follow the progress of the Bill on the LEGISinfo website.

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.