Information & Ethics Committee on May 4th, 2009

[Carolyn Kobernick]

Go ahead, Denis.

[Denis Kratchanov]

I can only repeat that the name of a requester is personal information that's protected under the Privacy Act. It's not information that should be shared--

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Exactly--

[Denis Kratchanov]

--outside--

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

So--

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

Excuse me. The only reason I've been interrupting a little bit is that I keep thinking of our good resources in the translation booth. If we talk over each other, they cannot get the proper response or question, so have a little patience, please. Let someone finish speaking and then we'll move on to the response or a new question.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Exactly. The privacy of the requester is to be protected, but here's a journalist, and the communications director for the Prime Minister, publicly, in a conference call, gives out that name.

In other situations, you have a deputy commissioner in the commissioner's boardroom trying to do a switcheroo of documents, and the minister does nothing about it, and then you have the elected representatives of the people, the very representatives that people have elected and have chosen to represent them, being amber-lighted by that same government that's breaking the intent by giving out names of journalists.

We have a serious issue here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

We have less than half a minute left. We should allow some time to respond.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Does this not show a pattern of secrecy that's just unacceptable and is fundamentally undermining the principle of transparency in a democracy?

[Carolyn Kobernick]

We're not going to comment on that.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

We are going to move on.

Mr. Lévesque, please go ahead.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Please pardon me for not speaking earlier, but I was thrown into the fray without any documentation. So, after hearing both you and the minister, I am really wondering about some things, just as all our fellow citizens are wondering. They are telling us that not a single minister within this government is allowed to make his own decisions, and that the Prime Minister is running the entire show. We know that ministers have assistants. People are wondering if the deputy ministers are telling the ministers what they should do or is it the other way around?

I wonder what happens when two proposals are tabled with the department. I sit on two other committees, and generally speaking, deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers make recommendations to ministers. In this particular case, there appears to be a detailed proposal—which unfortunately I have not read—and Commissioner Marleau is tabling 12 recommendations that could be included in the main proposal.

As the deputy minister or an assistant deputy minister and advisor—after all, I suppose that you are lawyers with a great deal of experience—you should be able to provide advice to the minister. Has the minister asked for a study of the two recommendations? Has he perhaps asked the department to prepare a bill that would be tabled with the committee for review?

[Carolyn Kobernick]

In my opinion, we provide advice to our minister, but we also receive advice from the minister. He is the one who has decided that it was important for the committee to study the report and the recommendations from Information Commissioner Marleau. He has spoken. So those are his instructions at this time.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

You yourself have not received a mandate to make recommendations to him. He has not asked you for your advice as such?

[Carolyn Kobernick]

Any recommendations I may have made to the minister are between him and me. It is confidential.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Could you whisper them into my ear?

[Some members]

Oh, oh!

[Carolyn Kobernick]

I don't think so.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

Merci, monsieur.

Madam Block please.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My colleague Mr. Wrzesnewskyj is trying very hard to paint a very bleak picture of access to information. But is it not true that the reforms made by the Conservative's Federal Accountability Act are the most significant reforms to ATI since the act was passed in 1983?

[Carolyn Kobernick]

I think Minister Nicholson himself has spoken to that, and those are the most significant ones since 1983, yes.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you.

Is it not also true that reforms introduced by this Conservative government expanded the act to cover many organizations, like the CBC and the Canadian Wheat Board?

[Carolyn Kobernick]

Yes, that's correct.