Evidence of meeting #2 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chairman.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
And you have notice of a motion to that effect, which I think you're duty bound to deal with.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Yes, and we will at this meeting, but we're going to finish what we just started.
I'm going to hear from Mr. Wallace first, Mr. Dhaliwal second, and then Mr. Hiebert.
Go ahead.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really have two very short questions.
I was on the committee as it was previously constituted in the last session. You provided us with a book, and I've highlighted the places where you talk about the Privacy Act as a priority. There is a motion coming in front of us to look at the Privacy Act.
My question to you is simply this. We started on the identity theft issue, and you have it down here as one of the five key issues. Can it be rolled into a discussion on the Privacy Act, or would you consider that a different and separate study and you believe we should just continue with and finish the identify theft study, the non-criminal aspects of it, and then head to the Privacy Act? Or could it all be combined together?
11:25 a.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Mr. Chairman, I think it would be preferable to follow the latter course you suggested and finish the identity theft hearings, because they just don't involve federal public sector legislation, but private sector legislation, criminal legislation, provincial legislation, and the viewpoints of many partners, and so on.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay, thank you.
My final question is for Mr. Marleau. You've been in the job for a little while now, and we at this committee have been tasked with.... When the Federal Accountability Act was tabled, I recall that your predecessor's report on the Access to Information Act had some suggestions, though I forget what he actually called the document.
Have you had a chance to review that document yet? And if we ever get there, would you be prepared to come to talk to us about what those suggestions were?
11:25 a.m.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The answer to that, Mr. Chairman, is yes, we have reviewed it. Parts of the open government proposal of my predecessor have been made moot by the amendments in Bill C-2, and others may also have been overtaken. But we've done a further analysis of the open government proposal. We've documented the sources of the recommendations. We informally shared that analysis with the Justice Department officials in a small group working together to see if we can find common ground and maybe establish a list where we have differences of opinion.
That's as far as we've gone, but I'd be happy to share that with the committee if it wishes.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Newton—North Delta, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, and the Ethics Commissioner for coming here and telling us about their progress, the challenges they face, their vision, and for sharing that with our committee.
I know, Mr. Chair, the priority today is that Canadians want to know the truth on the matter of Mr. Mulroney, and the integrity of this government is in question. I would like you to see that we move to those motions as soon as possible.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
We do have those motions and we will deal with them.
We have Mr. Hiebert, please.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for the Privacy Commissioner. I wonder if you can tell us, in light of the urgency of addressing these privacy issues that you named and the implications they have for our culture, for our values, when the Privacy Act was last reviewed.
11:30 a.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I believe, Mr. Chairman, it was in 1986 that it was last formally reviewed.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
So it's been more than 20 years since--
11:30 a.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
A House of Commons committee looked at it, yes.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On that, Ms. Stoddart, isn't there some legislation that says we must review that within a certain period of time?
11:30 a.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, Mr. Chairman, the honourable member is thinking of PIPEDA, where it's every five years, the private sector privacy act. But this was created in 1982, and there was not an automatic revision clause in it. Sorry, there was one, but it was reviewed once and then it was not renewable.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
That's a long time, 1986.
Mr. Marleau, on the report card topic, I may have misheard what you said. Are you telling me that the report card, under your jurisdiction or under your term of office, won't be made available until fall 2008? Did I hear you correctly?
11:30 a.m.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
That's correct, Mr. Tilson. What we're trying to do is close it out at the end of the fiscal year, but that's too late to put in the annual report, which has to be tabled before the end of June. Therefore, we'll use section 39 of the statute to file a special report with Parliament in the early fall.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
The reason I ask is that, as you've stated, the committee has actually looked at both. We looked at some that got an F and some that got an A. The purpose was to find out the good stories and how they can recommend to the others how to improve their ways. It might even help in preparing for the test you're going to give in the next little while.
My question to you is whether or not it would be appropriate to review the gradings the Information Commission has already given. Presumably there were some last year.
11:30 a.m.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
That's right, and a part of the process every year is to introduce a new series of institutions, but to follow up on those that we graded the year before.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
11:30 a.m.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Indeed, that's what we're doing--
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
No, I'm asking whether it would be useful for the committee.