Evidence of meeting #16 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 chairman.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Self-enforcing means that the departments put more resources into enforcing this law, into taking this more seriously, because there are some consequences.
November 8th, 2006 / 4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
There's a whole range of them. It's written up in our annual report.
There was a case that went to the Federal Court of Appeal this year, the Murdoch case, which interested some members of Parliament. I think it was a situation involving the RCMP. Mr. Murdoch said he must surely be able to get damages for what happened to him because the Privacy Commissioner said it was a problem. The courts said he couldn't because there was nothing they could give him, even though there was a privacy violation. That's an example we use in our report to you about the need for reform of the Privacy Act.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll try to be fairly quick.
I want to be clear. What we're approving tonight, if it goes through, is really this year's budget, or what you've been operating under since April 1, 2006. Is that correct? It goes to the end of March 2007. In that, you are looking for going from 80 people to 124. Is that accurate?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, it is.
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We've hired 20 and we have about 12 competitions ongoing right now.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I think we heard from the Information Commissioner that accommodation was an issue, meaning places to put people. Is that an issue for you?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, it isn't. We got onto that very early, and I think we can accommodate in creative ways.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Did you have an idea that you needed that kind of number and needed space prior to asking for the money?
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, I think it was on April 1, when it was confirmed that we did have that money.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
That's good.
So you were at about $1 million last fiscal year. You're office is about $1 million lower than that of the Information Commissioner. You then went—and I'm just talking about operating here, not the employee benefit part—from about $4 million to $14 million. You added about $10 million to your budget for this year. Is that accurate?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, it isn't. It's hard to understand our situation. We went from about $10 million to about $16 million.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
When I see “Main Estimates 2005-2006” and then go to “Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada – Program expenditures” and they're at $4 million, does that not include salaries?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Can I ask the director of corporate services?
Conservative
Director General, Corporate Services and Comptroller, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
If you look at the RPP, which is—
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I took a look at it. It's the same stuff as what's out of this book right here.
Director General, Corporate Services and Comptroller, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
On page 27 of the RPP, I think the number you're referring to is $4.6 million, which was allocated to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as part of the main estimates. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner was further allocated $7.135 million for the supplementary estimates, for a total budget last year of some $11.7 million, identified as total planned spending. The numbers that you want to compare are that $11.788 million and the $16.298 million.
