Yes.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pco.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pco.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
Yes.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Is there a sense, or is it your sense, that additional resources may have to be directed towards not only your responsibilities for addressing access to information requests, but also to other departments? Maybe I shouldn't be asking you if you've heard from other departments in determining a necessity for additional resources, but do you feel you have all the resources that are necessary to address the growing number of requests you're receiving?
12:05 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
At this point, I think we have allocated sufficient individuals to handle the workload we have at this point. One of the things that affected our rating in this last report—we actually got three stars out of five, which was significantly better than the F we received the year before—is that we've changed our business processes. So at this point in time I think we are able to handle the volume. We're just getting rid of some of the backlog, so I think we'll be in better shape. But like anything else, as volume goes up, if nothing else changes in the equation, then it is likely there would need to be other resources or more resources applied to it—either that or some change in how the process actually operates.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
We appreciate the fact that there has been such significant improvement within your own department, and other departments as well, and we appreciate your efforts to be open and transparent in that manner.
I'm reluctant to ask the question because I don't know the answer—people always say don't ask the question unless you know the answer or have a good idea—but is there any ongoing discussion with regard to the frustration many people have when they receive a document they've requested through access to information and find significant portions of the document are blacked out?
We saw this most recently in a document that came from the NCC, and it was surrounding the improvements to 24 Sussex. Something that you and I—or maybe not you and I, but many people around this table—might find frustrating is that there were significant portions blacked out on issues that I think would be generally considered relatively harmless. The average person, certainly the average parliamentarian, gets frustrated when they see large segments of a document blacked out. Is there any effort to address that concern and possibly rethink the amount that's blacked out?
The sense is that in order to get the documents out the door, there's a decision just simply to black out significant portions just in case they might be problematic, rather than erring on the side of full disclosure.
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
I've never heard of that practice in our office. People take their job very seriously because it is in accordance with the law. But they do apply the sections of the law equally as diligently, so if they apply a blackout on a particular section, then they actually have documented why they do that. The recourse is always there. There are certainly complaints that go to the Information Commissioner, and he will come in and look at the documents, and in some cases support what we have done. In some cases, there's been some small amount of additional information that has been released.
But basically we follow the rules as they are laid out in the act for what we should and should not be actually disclosing.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
Thank you.
I don't have any specific questions, so I will take a brief bit of time to just say congratulations for reducing your costs over the last few years. I'm hoping that hasn't challenged the actual efficiency and efficacy of the operation, but I'm a big fan of cutting where we can. So I congratulate you on that.
If it's all right, I'll split my time with my colleague, Mr. McTeague.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you.
I'm wondering if you could give us a bit of an elaboration on anticipation of.... I understand you've made some changes here and allocated a greater number to security, including the Olympics. But I'm wondering if there has been any allocation you're familiar with that has raised the attention of the PCO, generally, with respect to trade, the so-called “thickening of the border”, as it relates to Canada's possibility of becoming more involved with the question of assuming a greater responsibility at the borders. This seems to go hand in glove with the issue of ensuring that trade continues uninterrupted, which came out of some of the discussions with the Prime Minister and the President of the United States. Has the PCO seen this area in particular as a priority, given its economic impacts, which I think can't be gainsaid?
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
Personally, I'm not aware of any of those conversations in my role. I'm not sure....
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Yet, to use the chairman's expression, it's the “gorilla in the room”. It is paramount. I'm just wondering if there has been anything on that front.
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
Nothing specifically that I'm aware of.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Do you envisage, through all of this, any contingencies? What do you have set aside for contingencies in the area of security in terms of the budgets?
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
We don't have any contingencies. If we find we don't have sufficient funds, for example, for the coordinator, then we would come back in with supplementary estimates.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
March 12th, 2009 / 12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Is renewal of the public service a priority? If so, why?
12:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
Yes, it absolutely is a priority. I think it is the priority not only for the public service but for many private industries as well, because of the demographics of our country. We have an aging baby boomer population, and inside of the public service we are going to be losing a considerable number of people, particularly at the senior levels, probably over the next five years. So it is absolutely vital that we go out and recruit new people, either at the entry level or at the mid-manager level in order to ensure that we have a substantial public service.
Canada has a very good reputation with respect to our public service. In order to maintain it, it's absolutely essential that we bring in people and give them enough time to get up to speed. When people like me leave the public service, I want to make sure there is a contingent of folks behind me who are going to be taking care of the business of the government.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
You've given a partial answer to my next question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What are the key elements in the renewal of the public service?
12:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
I'm not an expert, but I would suggest that one of the key things is the need to brand the public service as a great place to work, because in fact it is. And it's probably one of the best kept secrets in Canada. I also think that the work.... In advertising or in trying to attract people to come into the public service, there's the fact that you are exposed to the whole parliamentary process; you have an opportunity to actually affect many Canadians in how they live. That's pretty impressive. That's a pretty impressive offer for someone to come in to be employed.
One of the other things we absolutely have to do is get that message out to university students, for example. Many deputies, for example, go out to universities to actually speak to students to give them some sense of what it's like to work in the public service, to encourage them to do that.
And of course we are out running collective staffing processes to try to attract people into the public service and to train them up.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
What is the role of the Advisory Committee on the Public Service?
12:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, Privy Council Office
Again, it's not my area of expertise, but my understanding is that the role of that committee is to actually give advice to the government on how all of that can be done, how to actually attract people into the public service, and what types of people they should be looking to attract into the public service.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
My final question is more personal, but it might inspire the succession.
I know that you've had a distinguished career within the public service. What message would you like to pass on? What has given you the greatest pride as a member of the Canadian Public Service?
