Elections Canada aims to ensure B.C. voters cast ballots despite wildfires

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This article was published 18/08/2021 (1483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER—Elections Canada has started a task force meant to ensure voters affected by wildfires in British Columbia will not face obstacles voting in this year’s federal election.

Spokesperson Andrea Marantz said the agency is working with other government bodies to keep track of the situation on the ground in B.C. to ensure residents who have been evacuated from fire-ravaged areas will be able to cast their ballots.

“We’re trying to be flexible but we also need to consult and see what’s the best way to serve these communities,” Marantz said. “You know, what is it that they need?”

But one mayor of a town in B.C.’s interior said he fears the agency won’t be able to overcome the strength of this year’s wildfire season.

It has been a devastating summer in the province as fires continue to smoke out the skies, torch homes and cause evacuation orders for thousands of residents. Thousands more are on evacuation alert. In some cases people have been evacuated more than once.

Earlier this week the main route through the province, the Coquihalla Highway, was closed because of a wildfire burning on its edges. There is still no end in sight for the destruction in the province, with Sept. 20 slated as election day in Canada.

Currently, workers are putting up posters in some areas where evacuees are now waiting out fires, to inform them of their voting options, Marantz said.

She said there are a number of steps the agency can take to ensure evacuees don’t miss their chance to vote, including the possibility of establishing special polling locations, or reassigning people to other polling locations in the same ridings.

Mail-in ballots can be sent to other locations in safe areas if people are afraid their home is in danger and people can register to vote online.

“We’ve got quite a long list of options we can use and methods we can use to communicate with people,” Marantz said. “We’re working really hard on this.”

The agency is currently hiring election workers, she said, often many return if they have worked previous elections.

“There’s no question it may be more challenging right now, but we’re trying to get hold of people,” she said.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Princeton, a small town about three and a half hours east of Vancouver, said he isn’t sure it will be easy to ensure people can vote.

Spencer Coyne said his town has evacuees from five different areas in the province. Coyne worries the extent of evacuations may be too large for effective outreach.

“It’s not like a normal fire season where all the evacuees from a certain community go to ‘this place’ and that’s where you go,” he said. “Right now, we have evacuees spread all through the province.”

He worries for other towns hard hit by the fires like Lytton, which burned to the ground in late June after nearly hitting 50 C during an infamous heat dome that hit the province, residents may be hard to find.

If Canada Post outlets are burned down or homes are gone it may be difficult to get mail-in ballots, he said.

Canada Post said in an emailed statement it does suspend delivery in regions where it is unsafe for its carriers to deliver mail, including concerns over air quality and such suspensions can change frequently. Plans to “catch up” after extended disruptions are also developed.

But Coyne said it won’t be the fault of election officials if people are unable to vote on Sept. 20. He blames the federal government for not waiting until B.C. is back to normal before calling the election.

“I feel bad for Elections Canada, they have to do the best they can with the situation they have,” Coyne said. “But this whole election is flawed from the get-go.”

Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland defended the government’s decision to call the election as “appropriate” on Monday in Metro Vancouver.

But others aren’t as concerned people won’t be able to get their ballots.

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Al Raine, famed Canadian skier and husband of former senator and fellow skier Nancy Greene Raine, is now the mayor of Sun Peaks Resort and a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. The district is home to a number of fires.

Raine said he’s confident people will be able to cast their ballots, but worries many can’t truly pay enough attention to be informed voters. With fires weighing on peoples’ minds or others “losing their houses” it isn’t a top priority for them, he said.

“I don’t think they have any time in their day over the next 40 days to really focus on what the issues are and who the candidates are,” Raine said. “I don’t think many people are thinking about the federal election right now.”

Raine said he hardly hears any mention of the federal election in his area as the fires stoke people’s anxiety levels.

Jeremy Nuttall is a Vancouver-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @Nuttallreports