Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 6th, 2006

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

But you haven't even bulked up to what you asked for last year, right?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

That's right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

What's taking you so long?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

It's the accommodation issue.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

What does that mean to me in English?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

It means office space. For a year now we've been trying to secure additional office space through Public Works. We have a certain number of security requirements because of the nature of our work. We can't be in several buildings around town, so they've been trying to free up some space for us in our existing building. We haven't had very much luck, although I did speak to the Deputy Minister of Public Works on Friday. He said that if this came up I should mention to this committee that he is now on the case and we're hoping to have a positive outcome.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So there's no issue of actually hiring bodies; it's an issue of finding places for them to sit.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

That's correct.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

You anticipate that you will have about half of that done before the end of this fiscal year. You'll have another eight--half of what's still not fulfilled. Is that correct?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

I'm still in the hands of Public Works. If I were to get office space tomorrow, I think we could fill the spaces.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I said at our last meeting that we're getting a fair amount of push-back that we should have been cutting not only programs but also part of our structure of government here. This is a solid and easy--no offence--half a million dollars that we could get. It's not going to get spent. It could go into our surplus, of course. I assume that any budgetary stuff not spent in a fiscal year ends up in the surplus.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

If there's any portion of this budget we can't spend it will come back to the government; it'll come back to the treasury at the end of the year.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay, those are my questions. Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Stronach.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I would also like to point out that this is not my regular committee, but thank you for coming.

What are the ten institutions referred to in the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs document?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

They're the additional foundations that have been added.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

When you talked about a blanket of secrecy, which to date is unprecedented, I'm trying to understand the decision to go that route, especially when there's been no indication that there was a concern. So I'm trying to understand that circumstance. Perhaps you can illuminate that and talk a little bit about it.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

I'm trying to understand it too, as a matter of fact. When the Access to Information Act first was brought in, in 1983, all government institutions that were added to the statute were added full blown--the documents they already had, the documents that had been created before the act came into force, as well as future documents. All the crown corporations had been added--all the documents they held in the past and the documents they create in the future.

The Senate...why they picked the foundations and the officers of Parliament? Those are the only organizations the Senate picked to not have any retroactive application of the Access to Information Act. It came as a surprise to me, and I'm not sure I understand, given the care with which there have been exemptions tailored for all these organizations. If you have carefully tailored exemptions, why then remove all the documents from the coverage of the statute?

So I am not able to help you with a good explanation. I don't understand it.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

So what is the check and balance there?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

It's unfortunate that all the records created by these foundations that were created by previous governments will never see the light of day through access to information. I don't understand why that should be the case, and the same for officers of Parliament. Why should the records held by officers of Parliament, the Auditor General, and so forth, never be subject to the light of day, even if they pass all the injury tests, and so forth. Somebody may want to write the story of the Auditor General's role in dealing with the sponsorship issue. That's a perfectly legitimate subject for historians. They'll never get those records, if the Senate amendments are passed. Someone may want to write the story of the Office of the Information Commissioner's fight over the agendas of the Prime Minister at some point in history, but they'll never get those records.

I don't understand the rationale.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I'm looking at it from the employee's perspective. You put the estimates together, and this is one department where you cannot predict how many cases will come to your desk. It's very uncertain for the employees as well. What is the turnover, or stability, of your employees? Is there quite a bit of turnover every year?

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

We have a very stable organization over time. We try to get people who are willing to commit themselves to us for a specific period of time. We have quite a few come in near the end of their careers and retire from our organization. I think last year our turnover was something like 6%, was it? Do we have that figure? We don't have the figure. Something tells me it was 6%, but if that's wrong, I'll certainly make sure the committee is aware of that.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses today for joining us and filling in some blanks.

In reading your report on plans and priorities, which was tabled in the House for the fiscal period April 1 to March 2007.

[J. Alan Leadbeater]

Part III of the estimates.