Evidence of meeting #44 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 million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So in a couple of years you're going from 80 to 154, if everything comes together in terms of being able to recruit.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
That's right, yes.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So you're almost doubling. How much of that is for the Accountability Act? On that piece you've provided for us on this chart on page 1, you ramp up a little bit and then you ramp down. I don't understand the ramping-down part.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I'll start, and if the chairman would allow, the director of corporate services will give additional details.
The ramping in this graph with the bar charts is because this is an additional amount of money to absorb the backlog we have now unfortunately carried for a couple of years. There's always a backlog, but--
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
The numbers ramp down again, because each year it goes down to 150 from 154.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, because the idea is to get rid of the backlog.
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay. I really appreciate that.
Another issue I have is, as you heard from this committee, and as we heard through PIPEDA's presentation, that public education on these privacy issues is--and I know you're working on it--not where people think it should be. Maybe the stuff is around here, but....
As part of the increase, I think we have 10 FTEs in there now. I can't tell if that's now or in the future. How many people do you have working on public education, and what is your goal in the next couple of years?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
If I just look at the chart here, that is the number currently. If I remember correctly, I think our goal is to almost double in the area of communications. Again, we're running a couple of competitions now.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Running competitions is a fairly long process.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We hope to I think almost double this, maybe increase this by 80%.
I think your second question, honourable member, was what we plan to do with this.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Yes. What are the goals? I'm assuming you've made a determination of what you want to do in new work for these new people.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We want increased presence, including increased regional presence. I'm concerned that there are areas of the country that are not getting the attention they should in terms of the message, so we would like to be able to send out, for example, speakers--not necessarily me or the assistant commissioner, but perhaps directors or so on--to various key groups that then act as crucial dissemination points for this news across Canada.
We are constantly updating and overhauling our website. Maintaining an attractive website is a very intense activity these days, especially for young people who are going to MySpace and Facebook and so on. So one of our challenges is how to make our website attractive for young people, which would involve considerable revamping and possibly specific activities for them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Mr. Wallace, your time has expired. You'll get another chance in another round.
Liberal
Liberal
Lloyd St. Amand Liberal Brant, ON
I think your comment, Ms. Stoddart, that the privacy standards in the public sector are lower than in the private sector strikes a worrisome chord in all of us. You've conceded that it's unacceptable.
If there's a comparison to be made, how does the standard, so to speak, of the federal legislation or federal policy compare to commensurate provincial legislation?