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.
Wayne Watson Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Approximately, yes.
Liberal
Jim Peterson Liberal Willowdale, ON
You mentioned that you're happy with your budget. If you were given more money, what would you do with it?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I've rarely been asked that, Mr. Chairman.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Newton—North Delta, BC
He's looking for a job. That's why he's saying it, right?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Honourable member, I can't answer that question at the moment. I'm just trying to spend the money I have, honestly.
I think hiring new employees is our big target, and we also have added responsibilities under our new access to information and money laundering responsibilities. We're currently evaluating those new responsibilities. If we need more money for them, we will come back to you; that might be a place where we do need some money.
Liberal
Jim Peterson Liberal Willowdale, ON
Is there generally a problem in the civil service as a whole in terms of hiring right now? We've seen reports of the Auditor General with respect to Foreign Affairs, for example.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Mr. Chairman, yes. I'm a member of a group called the Small Agency Administrators' Network, and throughout small agencies--I don't know about big departments--yes, we're all having problems hiring qualified people because of this demographic crunch and the difficulty of hiring people from outside into the public service.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It's partly, as I said, a question of pay levels in small organizations. The classification schemes of the federal government work best in large departments, I would say, so it's very hard to give the appropriate pay levels in small agencies even though you need highly expert people. That particular issue is an ongoing debate, shall we say, for small agencies.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We've taken that up within the small agency network, yes, and we as a group dialogue with Treasury Board about that.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I won't answer for Treasury Board or for the agency whose acronym is PSHRMAC, which is responsible for personnel policies and classification policies. I hope there would be, but I think they're the best ones to answer that for you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Thank you, Mr. Peterson.
Just before we get to Monsieur Vincent, I'll ask for a clarification, Madam Commissioner. In your opening remarks--which, as you quite rightly pointed out, you didn't read--you said “Meeting our goal of eliminating the backlog by the end of this year is directly related to our ability to find investigators to fill current vacancies.” You talked to Mr. Peterson about that.
My question is, how many investigators do you need, in your view, to clear the backlog, and what is the likelihood of getting that number within the year in order to meet your goal of clearing the backlog within the year?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Mr. Chairman, may I ask the director of investigations to give you those details?
Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Right now we're in the hiring process to obtain more investigators. I am confident that if we are able to fill our vacancies at this time, by the end of this fiscal year we will have taken care of the backlog.
Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I have 10 vacancies.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
And what is your best guesstimate as to whether you'll be able to hire 10 people?
Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have some posters out right now, and we have a considerable number of people who have applied. We're going through the process of elimination and the exams and the interviews. It will only be at that point that I'll be able to determine whether or not we'll be able to fill all the vacancies.
The last time we went through this process we were able to fill, I believe, six out of the 10 vacancies that existed at that time.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
It's not to prolong this, but your report on plans and priorities said you were going to look for 29 FTEs. Are the 10 part of those 29, or have the 29 now been ramped down to 10, or are we talking about two different things?
Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I would suspect that the 29 would be within the whole OPC organization. I'm talking specifically about the investigation branch.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Okay, so 10 of those proposed 29 would be for your branch. Is that right?
Director General, Investigation and Inquiries Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes.