Robocalls registry may not be in place for next election

OTTAWA — Reforms to the federal election law intended to crack down on illegal robocalls may not be put in place by the time Canadians next go to the polls.

The government’s contentious Fair Elections Act contains an obscure clause that places a six-month delay on the “robocall registry” of automated calling companies.

Depending on when the legislation receives royal assent, and the timing of the next election, the vote could be held with no more protection than exists now from the kind of misleading robocalls that marred the 2011 vote.

Most of the Fair Elections Act becomes law the moment the Governor General grants assent, after first winning approval from the House of Commons and Senate. But the coming-into-force clauses contain a specific phase-in period for sections dealing with automated calling companies.

These sections in the proposed law require calling companies to register with the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and retain for one year a copy of the recording used in automated robocalls and scripts used for live calls. The new provisions will take effect only on the day Parliament is dissolved and an election begins — as long as this occurs six months after the bill becomes law.

The coming-into-force clauses contain a specific phase-in period for sections dealing with automated calling

companies.

If an election is called within six months of assent, the robocalls rules won’t take effect until the date the next Parliament is dissolved — the election currently scheduled for 2019. It was concern about illegal robocalls during the 2011 campaign that put pressure on the government to overhaul the elections rules.

The government delayed introducing legislation until earlier this year, when it tabled the Fair Elections Act, a bill that has been panned by many elections experts.

But the Conservative government hopes to have it made law before Parliament recesses for the summer at the end of June, which would see it fully implemented with plenty of time before the next vote.

That plan could be derailed by resistance in the Senate, where it is subject to a “pre-study” concurrent with deliberations by a House of Commons committee.

The next election is scheduled for October 2015, under the fixed-election dates law the Conservatives introduced in 2006.