Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer has revealed that the federal elections agency intends to be ready for an election by next April, five months before the fixed election date for 2019.

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault outlined the timetable as he informed a Commons committee this week that a sweeping bill to overhaul the Canada Elections Act and upgrade cyber security would have to clear Parliament by December to give his office time to prepare.

“In terms of this bill, as I said, our target for readiness to deliver the election is April,” Perrault said in response to Conservative questions at a meeting of the Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which began reviewing the legislation, Bill C-76, last May.

“It’s not September, it’s April. Before that we have an election in the works, which is the last election, and we’re working on improvements for this election. But to meet the April target, we need to do some testing starting in January, that was my point. There’s a certain amount of runway that you want to be prudent about when you do those kind of changes.

“For the next election, given the environment, I very much look forward to having this legislation passed,” Perrault said.

“It includes measures to deal with third parties and foreign influence. It also includes measures to deal with cyber attacks and disinformation, so it is an important piece of legislation from that perspective,” he said at a meeting of the committee Tuesday.

“Also, it significantly reinforces the powers of the commissioner in … his investigations, so, from an integrity point of view, I do think it’s important to have this bill passed,” Perrault said.

Security upgrades and the many changes involved in implementing the changes to the Canada Elections Act involve at least 20 information-technology systems, the electoral officer told the committee.

“The coding window is between October 1, essentially, and early December, when the House rises,” Perrault said. “That’s when we need finality (for) how this bill will impact our systems, because after that, we go through a very rigorous testing in January … and then we do bug-fixing, then we roll out the systems in a simulation in the field in March,” he told the committee.

Ontario Conservative MP John Nater brought up the possibility of a snap election next spring and asked Perrault about a new provision stipulating how the bill would come into force once it passes through the Commons and the Senate and receives royal assent.

Under the new clause, the bill would come into force six months after it received royal assent, or on a date set by the chief electoral officer in a written declaration.

“I think Parliament Hill has a rumour mill that is in full swing, 365 days a year,” said Nater. “There’s always the implication there may be a spring election, at some point.”

He asked Perrault whether he had set a “drop-dead” date, during which the bill would not come into force by a written declaration if the Elections Canada systems weren’t ready yet.

“If there is an election called this spring (and) this bill passes, say, by December, is there a date throughout the spring that you would not go ahead with the coming-into-force provision within that six-month window? Is there a drop-dead date?” said Nater.

The Chief Electoral Officer said the agency would fall back on the old law.

“Let me backtrack a little bit,” Perrault said. “I want to reassure Canadians here, and MPs, (that) we are always ready to deliver the last election. Whenever we work on improvements, whether it’s within the boundaries of the law as it exists or other legislation, we always have an election that’s sort of ready.”

The election bill is massive and contains more than 200 pages of clauses amending the Canadian Elections Act.

The changes include: limits on partisan advertising by political parties in the period leading up to the start of an election period; new reporting requirements for third parties; a prohibition on spending by foreign entities during elections; the re-introduction of vouching and the use of voter information cards for proof of identity; and limiting the election writ period to 50 days.

Perrault told the committee that several advances will not be possible because of the long time it has taken to introduce and eventually pass the bill, including mobile polls for advance voting and a complete new registry for future voters, teenagers aged 14 to 18.

Division between the Conservatives, Liberals, and the NDP MP on the committee surfaced after Liberal MP Ruby Sahota proposed a motion to set dates for final clause-by-clause consideration of the bill, from Oct. 1 to Oct. 16.

The motion stated that if the committee does not complete normal clause-by-clause consideration by 1 p.m. on Oct. 16, all the remaining amendments submitted to the committee would be deemed moved, and the chair would be required to have successive votes without debate on all the remaining clauses and proposed amendments.

After debate over the tactic and the former Conservative government’s use of a similar committee-closure method in 2014 — when the Conservative majority passed controversial and unpopular changes to the Canada Elections Act — the committee passed an adjournment motion from Conservative MP Scott Reid by a voice vote.

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould was scheduled to appear at the committee Thursday afternoon.

But more wrangling erupted and Conservative MPs prevented her participation on Thursday by insisting on certain conditions including an appearance by Ontario’s chief electoral officer, Gregg Essensa, before they allow a vote on a final clause-by-clause motion to approve the bill.

The Liberals, backed by NDP MP David Christopherson, accused the Conservatives of stalling the legislation, which eliminates many controversial changes the former Conservative government imposed in 2014.