Evidence of meeting #14 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
Generally, on this issue, one.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
I don't know. Not long.
4:20 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
A number of times he's asked me about this, that, or the next particular thing--why this, why that, why something else--and I've responded as best I can.
We do provide quite an enormous amount of detail.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do you meet with him--and when I say “you”, I mean the commission, you or your staff--at any other time to discuss estimates or budgeting or financing of the commission?
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
That's interesting.
Any other questions?
Mr. Van Kesteren, and then I have a couple of questions, if I may.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, thank you very much for coming.
I want to just understand something. So 755, the numbers--correct, sir?
4:20 p.m.
Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
Well, 755 cases is a 12-year average.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
All cases. Okay.
I just did the math on that. It's about $6,600 per case, correct?
4:20 p.m.
Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
That's a 12-year average. In the last two years, it hasn't been that. It's been about double that. One year it was 1,400, and last year it was about 1,100.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Okay. I just needed clarification on that.
Thank you.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Commissioner, the Auditor General has recently begun examining the financial statements of several small organizations, including officers of Parliament. Has your office filed annual financial statements for the Auditor General's review?
4:25 p.m.
Director, Corporate Affairs, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
No, Mr. Chair. Basically, we are not at the same level as small agencies. We are considered an officer of Parliament under the Parliament of Canada Act, and therefore of the same status as the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament.
The Auditor General does not have any oversight of the House of Commons, Library of Parliament, or Senate budgets, and therefore does not have any oversight of our financial statements either.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Right. That was just on the front page of the paper a little while ago.
Do you have any concerns in general with that? Are you comfortable with that? Would you like the Auditor General to review your budgets? Or do you have any comment on that?
4:25 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
I would certainly be comfortable if that were the case.
4:25 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
No. We actively did the two things I mentioned earlier. Because we're not part of that program I felt it was necessary to do something so we weren't just relying on ourselves. In addition to the ordinary audit of our financial statements, we contracted for an operational review, the results of which we're now implementing.
4:25 p.m.
Director, Corporate Affairs, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
Our financial statements are done by the Library of Parliament, so they're actually done by a third party that questions some of the transactions that have occurred throughout the year. The Library of Parliament has been taking a challenging role with our budget--even our budget requirements and our financial statements. So it's not solely done internally. It's being done by a third party, the Library of Parliament, which does all our financial statements and main estimates as well.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Thank you.
I understand there is a statute that you have to follow. I must admit I don't have the statute in front of me, but when you say “the Speaker” is that what the statute says, or is it the Board of Internal Economy? Okay, so it's strictly the Speaker himself. Then the Speaker can either rubber stamp what you give, inquire, hand it off to somebody, call Treasury Board, or do none of the above. Is that right?
4:25 p.m.
Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Ethics Commissioner
That's correct. It's entirely up to him.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Do you get any feedback from the Speaker as to whether or not he has done any of those things, or do you have no idea what the Speaker does prior to...?