Information & Ethics committee  In 2005-2006 we voted extra moneys for extra investigators to deal with the backlog, and that was to sunset this year. It was on a sunset timeline. The A-base review looked at that. And now what is being proposed will carry us forward in terms of meeting our program mandate. If

Information & Ethics committee  The ATIP community at large is challenged in trying to find qualified people. That's why in my opening remarks I said we've changed our human resources strategy to go from knowledge-based--we used to recruit people who knew something about the statute--to looking at competency pr

Information & Ethics committee  No, sir. The $360,000 is the amount we asked for for this fiscal year, which was refused by the Treasury Board. The $600,000 ongoing was also refused by the Treasury Board for subsequent years.

Information & Ethics committee  Just by way of background, I did circulate a copy of the business model, Mr. Chairman. The business model is founded on the issues that I discovered when I arrived as commissioner, bearing in mind this very large backlog and the need to do systemic investigations at the same time

Information & Ethics committee  Without further funding, we'll now be operating with 106 FTEs going forward, as forecasted for the next six years.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm happy to report that we've made some considerable progress, and I'll ask the assistant commissioner to give you the specific figures.

Information & Ethics committee  We had broken down our requests for staffing over two years. For the current year as a supplementary, we were going to staff only 50% of that request and build it up into the next year. The total request was for 30 FTEs, and we've received 24.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to address you again on the issue of the supplementary estimates tabled in the House on May 14. When I appeared before this committee on May 13, I talked about the profound institutional changes I made over the last two years to address inhe

Information & Ethics committee  To me it is as important as financing an efficient judicial system. In other words, the courts--the Supreme Court of Canada--have called this a quasi-constitutional right. What price do you attach to the right of a citizen? His or her right to vote has costs attended to it, and

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I must say we are very grateful as a team for the time the committee has committed to this. I've truly enjoyed the discussion, and I hope I've been respectful of the questions in my answers. There are issues to be debated, and I'm grateful the committee h

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Not likely, but it's just going to pass on the cost to its clients.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm not insensitive to that side of the debate: it exists and it's there. It's a perception that I disagree with. It's an approach I disagree with, but I'm certainly willing to discuss it further. I know of no other jurisdiction that does it.

Information & Ethics committee  No.

Information & Ethics committee  The whole structure of transparency of government gets undermined, in my view. That's why it's aberrant. The government is the trustee of citizen information. The citizen has paid for this already. It's sitting on a shelf.