The Special Committee on Electoral Reform is trying to influence the questions in the Liberals’ online consultation process, just as that process is about to begin.

On Monday, Francis Scarpaleggia, chair of committee, tabled two committee reports in the House — one that would see the committee re-constituted in its current form if the government tables reform legislation, and another encouraging Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef to use a questionnaire developed by the committee when the government launches its consultation website, mydemocracy.ca.

Mydemocracy.ca, which is being designed and operated by Toronto’s Vox Pop Labs, is expected to go live some time in early December after Canadians receive invitations in the mail on how to use it.

Earlier this month, leaked questions Vox Pop proposed to use on mydemocracy.ca were criticized for being too vague and highlighting some of the most negative elements of proportional voting systems.

Vox Pop promised the questions weren’t final, and some weren’t even being used at all, but they cast enough doubt on the process for the committee to act last week ahead of its December 1 deadline to deliver its main electoral reform recommendations.

Speaking in the House of Commons foyer following Question Period Monday, NDP democratic reform critic Nathan Cullen said the motion was an effort to get the government to use “good questions” as it reaches out to 13 million Canadian households.

“It’s been a problem with this government’s consultation so far. They never get to the specific question, the elephant in the room — what kind of voting system do you want? The all-party committee came to a consensus over our own survey. Every party was involved. Every party signed off on the survey,” Cullen told reporters.

“We’re encouraging the government to use our model rather than the one that we’ve seen floated, which is at a vague, values-level that never gets to the heart of the question.”

The questionnaire developed by the committee introduced electoral systems in use around the world, while also asking about electronic voting, mandatory voting and how to move forward with reform.

According to a committee press release from August, the questionnaire took roughly 30 minutes to complete.