Report on the Survey of Registered Third Parties for the 43rd General Election: Wave 1 Final Report - Elections Canada Products and Services
Elections Canada provides various products and services for third parties to use. The most commonly used product was the Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors, with the vast majority of financial agents (47 out of 55) saying they used this product (see Figure 20). In contrast, the least-used product or service was the Webex information session for third parties, with only a few (4 out of 55) saying they used it. In fact, over four in ten financial agents (24 out of 55) said they were not aware of the Webex information session.
Figure 20: Elections Canada products and services used by third parties
Q21A-F. Did you use any of the following Elections Canada products and services? Base: All respondents (n=55)
Text version of "Figure 20: Elections Canada products and services used by third parties"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays the number of respondents who used various Elections Canada products and services.
The breakdown for The Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors is as follows:
Yes: 47
No: 3
I was not aware of this product: 3
Don't know: 2
The breakdown for The "New Requirements for Third Parties" document is as follows:
Yes: 30
No: 5
I was not aware of this product: 12
Don't know: 8
The breakdown for The Third Party Roadmap is as follows:
Yes: 27
No: 9
I was not aware of this product: 13
Don't know: 6
The breakdown for The Political Entities Support Network 1-800 # is as follows:
Yes: 23
No: 13
I was not aware of this product: 15
Don't know: 4
The breakdown for The Political Financing videos is as follows:
Yes: 8
No: 23
I was not aware of this product: 21
Don't know: 3
The breakdown for the Webex information session for third parties is as follows:
Yes: 4
No: 21
I was not aware of this product: 24
Don't know: 6
Helpfulness of Elections Canada Products and Services
Financial agents who stated that their third party had used a given product or service were then asked to rate its level of helpfulness.
The Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors was the product most used by respondents (see Figure 20). About nine in ten financial agents (42 out of 47) said this product was helpful. Almost seven in ten (32 out of 47) said it was somewhat helpful, and a fifth (10 out of 47) said the handbook was very helpful (see Figure 21). Only about one in ten (5 out of 47) respondents said the handbook was not helpful.
Figure 21: Helpfulness of the Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors
Q22. Would you say that Elections Canada's Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors was... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=47)
Text version of "Figure 21: Helpfulness of The Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found The Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not helpful at all: 1
Not very helpful: 4
Somewhat helpful: 32
Very helpful: 10
BTM2: 5
TOP2: 42
The document "New Requirements for Third Parties" was the second most-used product: seven in ten financial agents who used this product (21 out of 30) said they found it helpful (see Figures 20 and 22). Almost six in ten (17 out of 30) said it was somewhat helpful, and one in eight (4 out of 30) said it was very helpful. About a quarter (8 out of 30) said this document was not helpful.
Figure 22: Helpfulness of "New Requirements for Third Parties" document
Q24. Would you say that Elections Canada's document entitled, "New Requirements for Third Parties," was... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=30)
Text version of "Figure 22: Helpfulness of 'New Requirements for Third Parties' document"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the "New Requirements for Third Parties" document to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Don't know: 1
Not helpful at all: 1
Not very helpful: 7
Somewhat helpful: 17
Very helpful: 4
BTM2: 8
TOP2: 21
Almost half of the financial agents (27 out of 55) said they used the Third Party Roadmap, and almost three quarters of those who did (20 out of 27) said it was helpful (see Figures 20 and 23). Almost half (13 out of 27) said it was somewhat helpful, and about a quarter (7 out of 27) said it was very helpful. Another quarter (7 out of 27) said the roadmap was not very helpful.
Figure 23: Helpfulness of Roadmap
Q23. Would you say that Elections Canada's Third Party Roadmap was... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=27)
Text version of "Figure 23: Helpfulness of Roadmap"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the Roadmap to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not very helpful: 7
Somewhat helpful: 13
Very helpful: 7
TOP2: 20
Four in ten financial agents (23 out of 55) contacted Elections Canada through the 1-800 number for political entities. Of those who did, a little over half (12 out of 23) said it was helpful (see Figures 20 and 24). About four in ten (9 out of 23) said contacting Elections Canada was somewhat helpful, and one in eight (3 out of 23) said it was very helpful. However, a little less than half (11 out of 23) said contacting Elections Canada through the 1-800 number was not helpful.
Figure 24: Helpfulness of Political Entities Support Network (1-800 Number)
Q27. Would you say that contacting Elections Canada through the 1-800 number for political entities was... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=23)
Text version of "Figure 24: Helpfulness of Political Entities Support Network (1-800 Number)"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the 1-800 number for political entities to be when contacting Elections Canada. The breakdown is as follows:
Not helpful at all: 4
Not very helpful: 7
Somewhat helpful: 9
Very helpful: 3
BTM2: 11
TOP2: 12
Eight financial agents said they had used the Political Financing videos on Election Canada's website. However, the majority (5 out of 8) said this service was not helpfulfootnote 1 (see Figure 25). Half (4 out of 8) said it was not very helpful, and one in eight said the videos were not helpful at all. Almost four in ten (3 out of 8) said the videos were helpful.
Figure 25: Helpfulness of Political Financing videos
Q25. Would you say that the Political Financing videos on Elections Canada's website were... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=8)
Text version of "Figure 25: Helpfulness of Political Financing videos"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the Political Financing videos on Elections Canada's website to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not helpful at all: 1
Not very helpful: 4
Somewhat helpful: 2
Very helpful: 1
BTM2: 5
TOP2: 3
Only four financial agents said they had used the Webex information session for third parties, and all four said it was not helpfulfootnote 2 (see Figure 26). Of the four, three said it was not helpful at all and one said it was not very helpful.
Figure 26: Helpfulness of Webex presentation
Q26. Would you say that the Webex information session for third parties was... Base: Respondents who used this product (n=4)
Text version of "Figure 26: Helpfulness of Webex presentation"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the Webex information session to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not helpful at all: 3
Not very helpful: 1
BTM2: 4
Pre-Electoral Period Phone Call
Some third parties that registered before the writs were issued (i.e. before September 11, 2019) were required to submit an interim return within 5 days of registration. To assist with that process, Elections Canada calls a representative of the third party to discuss this requirement. That representative could be either the applicant or the financial agent. Financial agents of third parties that registered before September 11, 2019, were asked if they received a call from Elections Canada to discuss the fact that third parties may need to file an interim return within 5 days of becoming registered. Almost half (16 out of 34) said they did receive a phone call, about a quarter (9 out of 34) said they did not, and another quarter (9 out of 34) said they did not know (see Figure 27).
Figure 27: Following application submission, received a phone call to discuss that the third party may need to file an interim return within 5 days of becoming registered
Q28. After your application was submitted, did you receive a phone call from Elections Canada to discuss the fact that the third party may need to file an interim return within 5 days of becoming registered? Base: Respondents who registered before September 11, 2019 (n=34)
Text version of "Figure 27: Following application submission, received a phone call to discuss that the third party may need to file an interim return within 5 days of becoming registered"
The pie chart above displays the number of respondents who received or did not receive a phone call from Elections Canada to discuss the fact that the third party may need to file an interim return within 5 days of becoming registered. The breakdown is as follows:
Yes: 16
No: 9
Don't know: 9
Of the 16 financial agents who did receive a phone call from Elections Canada, half (8 out of 16) said the call was helpful, and the other half (8 out of 16) said it was not helpful (see Figure 28).
Figure 28: Helpfulness of phone call about interim return requirement
Q29. How helpful was that phone call? Base: Respondents who received a call about the interim return requirement (n=16)
Text version of "Figure 28: Helpfulness of phone call about interim return requirement"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the phone call about the interim return requirement to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not helpful at all: 1
Not very helpful: 8
Somewhat helpful: 3
Very helpful: 5
BTM2: 8
TOP2: 8
Financial agents who registered before September 11, 2019, were also asked how they would prefer to receive this type of information. About seven in ten (24 out of 34) said they would prefer to receive information of this type by email, and about three in ten (10 out of 34) said they would prefer to receive it by phone (see Figure 29).
Figure 29: Preferred method of receiving information following registration
Q30. When receiving information like that, do you prefer phone or email? Base: Respondents who registered before September 11, 2019 (n=34)
Text version of "Figure 29: Preferred method of receiving information following registration"
The horizontal bar chart above displays the number of respondents who named email rather than phone as their preferred method of receiving information following registration. The breakdown is as follows:
Email: 24
Phone: 10
Email Reminder
Financial agents who submitted at least one interim return were asked if they received an email reminding them of the September 30 and October 15 deadlines to file their interim returns. The majority (16 out of 24) said they did receive an email, one in eight (3 out of 24) said they did not receive an email, and about a fifth (5 out of 24) said they did not know (see Figure 30).
Figure 30: Received an email reminder regarding deadlines to file interim returns
Q31. Did you receive an email reminding you of the September 30 and October 15 deadlines to file your interim returns? Base: Respondents who submitted one or more interim returns (n=24)
Text version of "Figure 30: Received an email reminder regarding deadlines to file interim returns"
The pie chart above displays the number of respondents who received or did not receive an email reminding them of the September 30 and October 15 deadlines to file their interim returns. The breakdown is as follows:
Yes: 16
No: 3
Don't know: 5
All 16 financial agents who received an email reminder regarding the deadlines found it helpful (see Figure 31). Over half (9 out of 16) said the email reminder was somewhat helpful, and over four in ten (7 out of 16) said it was very helpful.
Figure 31: Helpfulness of email reminder
Q32. How helpful was that reminder email? Base: Respondents who received an email reminder regarding deadlines to file interim returns (n=16)
Text version of "Figure 31: Helpfulness of email reminder"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the email reminder to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Somewhat helpful: 9
Very helpful: 7
TOP2: 16
The 16 financial agents who received an email reminder were also asked about the timing of that email. They could choose from the following answer options: timing was good; sent too early; sent too late; don't know. All 16 financial agents said the timing of the email was good.
Q34. How was the timing of that email?
Base: Respondents who received an email reminder regarding deadlines to file interim returns (n=16)
Financial agents who submitted at least one interim return were also asked how they would prefer to receive this type of information. Almost all (23 out of 24) said they would prefer email; only one said they would prefer phone (see Figure 32).
Figure 32: Preferred method of receiving information regarding interim return deadlines
Q33. When receiving information like that, do you prefer phone or email? Base: Respondents who submitted one or more interim returns (n=24)
Text version of "Figure 32: Preferred method of receiving information regarding interim return deadlines"
The horizontal bar chart above displays the number of respondents who named email versus phone as their preferred method of receiving information regarding interim return deadlines. The breakdown is as follows:
Email: 23
Phone: 1
Ad Campaign
Financial agents were asked if they remembered seeing any social media ads or posts from Elections Canada about registering as a third party. Over eight in ten (45 out of 55) said they did not recall seeing any ads or posts from Elections Canada, just under one in ten (5 out of 55) said they did, and another one in ten (5 out of 55) said they did not know (see Figure 33).
Figure 33: Recollection of seeing social media ads or posts about registering as third party
Q35. Do you remember seeing any social media ads or posts from Elections Canada about registering as a third party? Base: All respondents (n=55)
Text version of "Figure 33: Recollection of seeing social media ads or posts about registering as third party"
The pie chart above displays the number of respondents who remember or do not remember seeing social media ads or posts from Elections Canada about registering as a third party. The breakdown is as follows:
Yes: 5
No: 45
Don't know: 5
The five financial agents who recalled seeing social media ads or posts from Elections Canada were asked whether these ads were helpful. Three of the five said the social media ads and posts were helpful, while the remaining two said they were not helpfulfootnote 3 (see Figure 34).
Figure 34: Helpfulness of ad campaign
Q36. Would you say that those social media ads and posts were... Base: Respondents who said they recalled seeing social media ads or posts from Elections Canada about registering as a third party (n=5)
Text version of "Figure 34: Helpfulness of ad campaign"
The stacked horizontal bar chart above displays how helpful respondents found the social media ads and posts to be. The breakdown is as follows:
Not very helpful: 2
Somewhat helpful: 2
Very helpful: 1
TOP2: 3
Other Products, Services or Sources
All financial agents were asked if there are any other kinds of products or services that would have made the process easier. There was a total of 65 mentions provided by the financial agents, as they had the option to suggest more than one product or service. A common response provided was a help line or knowledgeable people to answer questions and explain things (11 out of 55) (see Figure 35).
Figure 35: Other products or services that would have made the process easier
Q37. Is there any other kind of product or service that would have made the process easier for you? If so, what kind? (Open-ended) Base: All respondents (n=55)
Text version of "Figure 35: Other products or services that would have made the process easier"
The horizontal bar chart above displays the number of respondents who named various other products or services that would have made the process easier for them. The breakdown is as follows:
A help line or knowledgeable people to answer questions: 11
Make information or resources easier to find or have everything in one place: 5
Clearer/Unambiguous information (e.g. registration process, rules, language used, etc.): 7
More complete, detailed information with examples: 5
An overview or summary/checklist of procedures and requirements: 4
Ability to consult with others (e.g. lawyers, NGOs, board of directors): 3
A detailed explanation of how to fill out forms, expenses, etc.: 2
Provide resources sooner (e.g. handbook): 2
Other: 2
None: 14
Don't know/Refused: 10
Financial agents were also asked if they consulted other sources aside from Elections Canada to understand how the provisions of the Canada Elections Act related to third parties and applied to the financial agents' situation. Six in ten (33 out of 55) said they did consult other sources, nearly four in ten (21 out of 55) said they did not, and one said they did not know (see Figure 36).
Figure 36: Consulting other sources aside from Elections Canada to understand the provisions of the Canada Elections Act
Q38. Did you consult any other sources aside from Elections Canada to understand the provisions of the Canada Elections Act as they relate to third parties and how they applied in your situation? Base: All respondents (n=55)
Text version of "Figure 36: Consulting other sources aside from Elections Canada to understand the provisions of the Canada Elections Act"
The pie chart above displays the number of respondents who said they did or did not consult with other sources aside from Elections Canada to understand the provisions of the Canada Elections Act as they relate to third parties and how they applied in their situation. The breakdown is as follows:
Yes: 33
No: 21
Don't know: 1
The 33 financial agents who said they did consult other sources aside from Elections Canada were asked what sources they consulted. There was a total of 38 mentions provided by the financial agents, as they had the option to mention more than one source. Most financial agents (22 out of 33) mentioned that they consulted with a lawyer or legal counsel (see Figure 37).
Figure 37: Other sources financial agents consulted aside from Elections Canada
Q39. What sources did you consult? Base: Respondents who said they consulted other sources to understand the provisions of the Canada Elections Act (n=33)
Text version of "Figure 37: Other sources financial agents consulted aside from Elections Canada"
The horizontal bar chart above displays the number of respondents who named other sources they consulted with aside from Elections Canada. The breakdown is as follows:
Lawyer/Legal counsel: 22
Auditor: 4
People with prior experience (i.e. registering as a third party): 3
