Information & Ethics Committee on April 26th, 2007

[Robert Marleau]

Being there now, my impression is that it's a very happy little crew. Nobody is jumping out the windows. They're working very hard. They get a lot of satisfaction in what they do. We do resolve 99% of the complaints, and they've had some extensive training--that I attended early on in my mandate--on mediation rather than investigation.

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

The employees you're thinking to house by August, will they be fully trained, or do you have to provide the training in-house?

[Robert Marleau]

We will have to train them. They'll be paired with experienced investigators, and we will train them. We can also reassign within our experienced staff. And some of them will come with skill sets. That's part of the competition process.

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

What is causing this delay until August? Why don't you do it right away?

[Robert Marleau]

We had a problem getting the space to house them. Even though Parliament made a decision to grant the money, there just wasn't the space in the building. It has been established by Public Works that someone is coming to a lease end on August 1. We've made a business case for that space, and I believe it's been agreed to formally.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Does Mr. Peterson want to add something?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

No, but thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Tom Wappel]

Thank you.

Mr. Wallace.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Thank you.

I also read the April 26 document you provided, and it's excellent. I have a few questions from it, if you don't mind.

We'll start with some numbers on page 6, where you're talking about internal audit. Is that one person, a couple of people, or what? I'm assuming there's no internal auditor now and you want to put one on staff. Is that what I'm to read on this page?

[Robert Marleau]

It's going to represent two full-time equivalents and some consulting money. We just can't justify having that many more resources. There are two--

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

This is the result of the government's Federal Accountability Act that's been passed, correct?

[Robert Marleau]

Yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

We want higher financial standards by having internal audits, including in your department?

[Robert Marleau]

It flows from the internal audit policy of the Treasury Board, yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Great.

Turning to page 3, there are two things I want to talk about. The first concerns the Privacy Act.

At this committee, Mr. Marleau, and maybe you can help us with this a little bit, I think we have made a decision that holds. In the fall we might embark on looking at the Privacy Act as a major study for this committee.

Of course, you had a previous hat on, but from the access to information piece, do you think it's a good idea for us? Is it time for it to be reviewed by this committee? Do you have any comments to that effect?

[Robert Marleau]

I can only echo my three predecessors and say that it's long overdue. There should be provided in the act, I think, a timely requirement for a parliamentary review....

Was that the Privacy Act or the access act?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Privacy.

[Robert Marleau]

Oh, I'm sorry, sir.

Yes, from my previous experience, even after six months' interim, I remember writing a letter to the President of the Treasury Board recommending that the Privacy Act be opened up as quickly as possible.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So you would agree that this committee putting that on the agenda for extensive study--we agreed to it as of the last meeting--is the proper approach.

[Robert Marleau]

I don't know what the commissioner has told you, but in my view as a former commissioner, it's overdue.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay. Because it will have some effect on access to information issues, I'm assuming. Or is that not correct?

[Robert Marleau]

It could.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

At the bottom of the page, you talk about report cards. Can you explain to me what they are? Are they public? Do we see them? Or who sees them? I don't understand what exactly that is.

[Robert Marleau]

Report cards are the reviews we do of the compliance of government departments with the timelines, essentially the timelines that are provided by the statute. We do a number of them every year, and we do follow-ups in subsequent years. They're published in our annual report, which will be coming out in a little more than a month's time.

The departments are given a grade—A, B, C, D, E, F—in terms of their performance.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Is it just a grade, or are there suggestions on how to improve in this report card?