It is clear that although the legislation does not speak of permanent returning offices, it does speak of business hours. Therefore, the legislation speaks of some kind of formality in the holding of elections, some certainty tied to business hours. Indeed, it could not be otherwise. Even though Metis settlements are small communities, as pointed out by Cos-tigan J. in Dumont v. Fayant, and that reality should be taken into account in making decisions about Metis settlements, it would not make sense that the returning officer on a Metis settlement could consider her residence as a place for making filings or making inquiries. She will not be in her residence 24 hours a day; an individual who came to file a nomination paper at her residence at 10:30 a.m. on nomination day should not expect to find her there. Individuals from the community have no right to expect her to be at her residence between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday. One could not expect that every day she would bring to her residence all of her paperwork relating to the election on the off-chance that some member of the community would decide at 1:24 a.m. to have a look at the disclosure statements of all of the candidates.
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