The Canadian Press Canada's chief electoral officer warned that Bill C-76, which overhauls parts of the election system, had to be passed by the end of 2018 for any changes to be implemented in time for the 2019 vote.

OTTAWA — Legislation aimed at preventing foreign interference and constraining the influence of big money in Canadian elections has been approved by the Senate.

Bill C-76 passed in the upper house late Monday on a vote of 54-31 and is expected to receive royal assent later this week.

That means the reforms will apply during next year's federal election campaign.

Chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault had warned that the much-delayed bill must go into effect by the end of this year if the independent elections watchdog was to have time to implement the reforms for next year's campaign.

Bill removes 5-year limit on voting for expats

Bill C-76 is an omnibus bill that will reverse a number of changes wrought by the previous Conservative administration's widely denounced Fair Elections Act. It will restore the use of voter information cards as a valid form of identification to prove residency and will do away with measures that critics argued were designed to benefit the deep-pocketed Tories.

It will limit spending by parties and advocacy groups during the three-month period before an election is officially called, as well as during the official campaign. And it scraps a Tory-instituted provision allowing parties to spend $650,000 for each day a campaign exceeds the minimum 37 days and caps the maximum campaign length at 50 days.

It will also extend the right to vote to ex-patriate Canadians, no matter how long they've lived outside the country, rather than the current five-year limit.