Evidence of meeting #29 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 complaints.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Now you would like to triage the complaints you receive from regular users. I understood you to say that some people make complaints that you deem to be less important, even though you do not consider them to be frivolous, and you are currently developing an analysis grid to determine which ones are important and which ones are less important.
Did I get that right?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, and we want that to apply not only to individuals, but to institutions—for example, federal government departments. We would like to prepare a more detailed picture of the complaints that we receive in the course of a year. That requires a kind of computer sophistication that we don't have for the time being, but it is part of the retooling.
In a case where, year after year, we receive dozens of complaints from various sources dealing with the same subject, where the problem has been corrected but comes back subsequently, we need to determine whether, ideally, we should continue to process these complaints or simply carry out our own investigation and table a special report with Parliament, given that the legislation is not being complied with.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
A little earlier, you in fact referred to investigations that you would initiate. Have you initiated any such investigations over the last year?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, I mentioned the case involving TJX, which is an extensive investigation, and the one involving SWIFT, which is global in nature.
Bloc
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Since 2005, we have initiated about 15 investigations.
Bloc
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
At the present time, about 1,500 investigations are ongoing. Last year, we received 752 complaints under the Privacy Act and 289 complaints under PIPEDA.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
That was going to be my first question for Madam Stoddart.
Welcome, and thank you for being here.
I am interested to hear that. I thought it would be the reverse--that you would have a higher volume under PIPEDA and the private sector than you would in the public sector. Do you think that's going to change as people's awareness and knowledge of their privacy rights in the private sector grows, that under PIPEDA the volume might overtake the public sector complaints?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Anything is possible, but the trend seems to be maintaining itself. There are fewer complaints under PIPEDA than under the Privacy Act. I think you have to look at who complains under the Privacy Act and why. Remember that a lot of our complaints under the Privacy Act are against Correctional Services Canada, the Solicitor General, the RCMP, Employment and Immigration, HRDC, and so on. That's one kind of discrete population.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
You talk about being able to triage cases, and I suppose it would help you in your volume of casework. But we heard from the Information Commissioner that there's only so far he can go in triaging casework. If the obligation in the act is that the commissioner shall investigate, is that problematic to you? Will you make a recommendation to us to have the language more amenable to what you need to do?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Exactly, Mr. Chairman. In the second hour of our meeting today, that's one of the recommendations I'll be suggesting to you could be rather easily changed in the Privacy Act, and I've already suggested in PIPEDA, in the letter sent to the Minister of Industry in January of this year, that having more discretion--and commissioners around the world are asking for more discretion--would make us more effective in rendering services to a greater number of citizens.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
What types of complaints from the Correctional Service of Canada...? Are prisoners filing complaints?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, people who are incarcerated, and there's also a large number from those who work in the Correctional Services institution. We reported on this at great length in one of our last annual reports. There are serious discussions, and personal information is a part of that, in the correctional world, but it's mostly from the people who are incarcerated.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I guess one of the problems you've flagged front and centre, which is self-evident in your reports, has been a 40% turnover in staff. That's a problem in any agency or institution. Is hiring in the public sector part of the problem in filling these jobs, the process of hiring, or is it just a paucity of applicants with the right skill sets?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I think it's a generalized problem. In fact, I just came from a presentation, if I may quote her, by the President of the Public Service Commission, Madam Barrados, who also reports to Parliament, and across the public service there's a 40% turnover rate.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes. So we're trying to become more refined on how we search for candidates and go to pre-screening, to cross-Canada competitions. We're running one now for a very important job to look at interchanges with other privacy commissioners. It's just a challenge because there are so many other agencies and departments in competition with us for the same pool that we can't hire fast enough, and civil servants are retiring, and so on.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Temporary foreign workers, eh, Mike?
Temporary foreign workers, that's the answer.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We've had some of those too. We've had people from other data protection agencies come and do a kind of stage or a practicum, but they're not a long-term solution.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Some of my questions have been answered, in a sense, and I appreciate Mr. Murphy's interjection earlier.
I'll share some of my time with Mr. Van Kesteren, so when I have one minute left, let me know.
I understand, and I had this discussion with the Information Commissioner two days ago, you're working on a plan that would give you more people, more bodies. Is that an accurate statement, based on the FAA? But you're not allowed to reflect it in your future numbers here because it hasn't been approved yet. Is that correct?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes. That's for the parliamentary panel to consider in the coming weeks.
