Evidence of meeting #14 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
That's right.
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
That's right. We're unusual in that sense.
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
We're part of Parliament, actually.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you.
I'd like to welcome all of our committee colleagues back here from the break.
I'd also like to particularly welcome you back, Ms. Dawson. Thank you for your presentation. Speaking as a new MP, I think you did a great job in helping with the orientation. I know I certainly appreciated that.
I'd like to ask a question particularly on your investigations. I'm wondering whether you feel there are any barriers that you have to deal with. Perhaps you could enlighten me on that, please.
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
The only fly in the ointment, I guess, would be if a person who is being investigated in a particular case drags their feet in giving information. That could slow the investigation down. Generally speaking, though, we've had very good luck with carrying on the cases. People are always compliant, and we get the information we ask for.
I can't think of any real snags in the process.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
So you have the freedom to investigate pretty well anything that you feel is warranted?
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes. For example, we've never had to resort to a court order, which we can do if we need to. It has been fine.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
I went through the summary, and you spoke of the dollars associated with the Senate and the House of Commons. I'm curious; it seems there are some different rules associated with the Senate, where the investigation goes through committee.
I'm looking at the text of the Senate code, and it says that the conflict of interest officer must get the advice of the Senate conflict of interest committee before notifying the proper authorities “if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Senator has committed offences under the law of Canada's provinces or territories”. It's not really the same type of thing we have in the House of Commons, right?
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Not at all. No, there's nothing like that.
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Probably. I really don't know if there has ever been an investigation in the Senate.
Was there one investigation in the Senate, or has there never been one...?
I haven't observed experience with the Senate's investigations.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
I suppose the other part, and again because we want to discuss as much as we can about the estimates....
It was established in 2007. Have your office's financial needs changed from those of the previous Office of the Ethics Commissioner?
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes, I think they have. But I'll let Denise Benoit respond to that. We have a few more responsibilities than the previous office did.
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
The appropriations have gone up. There was some money set aside, because when the act came into effect there was an extended mandate. There was up to $3 million made available to our office to increase our budget if we needed it. We never got the full amount.
But I do have something here. When we first started, our budget was $5.8 million, and that was for 2007-08. It went up to $7.1 million last year, and we're still at $7.1 million.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Colleagues, do you want to do a follow-up on any of that?
I think we have lots of time for everyone, so perhaps we should move on.
Madam Simson.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
Thank you, Chair.
And thank you, Ms. Dawson, for appearing again.
I'm particularly interested in what you had to say with respect to the challenges you face being a small office. How are you going to address that going forward?
I don't see any substantive change in terms of maintaining employees. Your statement says that you continue to lose them through the back door; you can attract them, but you're losing them. It would seem that it's a constant rollover, so how is it that you will not be in the same position of leaving money in the salary envelope this year?
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
All we can do is the best we can do--make it as nice a place to work as we can.
It's actually quite an interesting place to work, but we have to keep struggling. I recognize that it's going to be a constant problem. We have to address mechanisms for continuing to staff.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
As of March 31 there were eight vacant positions, of which you've essentially filled four. My concern--and maybe this is a little naive--is that I am sitting in the House every day hearing about massive unemployment and here we can't fill these positions.
I'm curious. You said that most of the positions that were vacant were compliance positions but that overall everybody is fairly compliant. I don't know if you can divulge it, but can you give me an approximate salary range for a compliance officer--just a range?
Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
It's $80,000, I'm told.