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.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, those are term employees.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I understand that. So do those people come back? I guess I'm trying to figure out how you operate. Do you hire people under contract, and when their term expires they're gone forever, or do you hire them again under another contract?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It can be a mixture, Mr. Chair. Occasionally they can be hired back, but best policy says one is not supposed to keep hiring employees under contracts that keep repeating themselves.
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
But I can't say that it doesn't ever happen, for the reason that we have a talented.... For example, one of the situations that we often meet now is that our own employees retire, but they're interested in working for us part-time. They have all the skills. They know the files. They have the security clearances. I don't think it's unique to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
I've never seen a particular study of it, but some of those, for example, on very specialized files, can be useful and may have--
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Yes. I guess I just look at efficiency. I understand your problems of security, and I don't even know what that entails--probably a lot.
But you look at efficiency and the starting of files, and then they leave. It's like in any other office. You start on something.... You don't have to tell me about it. There has to be a lot of inefficiency with this system when the largest portion of people who leave appear to be--I'm probably reading it wrong--people on contract. I don't know what they do, but if they're doing research, if they're doing mediation, if they're doing legal work, technically, they could leave in the middle of a file.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Usually on a contract they stay to the end of the contract. It's the permanent employees who, inversely, Mr. Chair, can leave with two weeks' notice, as I've said.
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I do.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
You do education, you do research, you do mediation, you do legal work, you go to the Federal Court. Is that basically it?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We do an increasing number of communications, public education--
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
--and outreach, where....
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Getting into the complaints, is most of the work mediation and conciliation?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
And investigation of complaints.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
And investigation. Do you contract that out, or do your permanent staff handle that?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, we do have some employees who work on contract. They're usually former investigators--in fact, all are.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What did you spend on mediation and conciliation this past year as opposed to the year before?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It's somewhere in the $3 million....
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
And I assume that would include contract workers. Is it possible to lump it in as to which...? I'm trying to determine what you do. Is that possible?
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It is, but we have a plethora of figures here--
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Not always immediately, though.
Mr. Chair, this year we plan to spend roughly $3.5 million on investigations and inquiries. Last year's figure was probably a bit more because some of our resources sunsetted, and that's why we're going back for supplementaries before the parliamentary committee. I don't have them right here to refer to exactly, but it will be in our forthcoming--
Conservative
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, within half a million it's the same up until now.