Evidence of meeting #21 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 year.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
They were all resolved either to our satisfaction or to the complainant's satisfaction. That period, 2007-08, coincides with my arrival. I have to tell you, and I think I've told the committee before, that I deliberately did not initiate complaints that year because I was facing this monstrous backlog and did not want to reallocate resources to it.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
That gives rise to the next question. In the past, commissioners seem to have been quite active in initiating complaints. They've been proactive. Since your arrival, we've only had one that you've initiated.
We understand the hill that you face with the backlog, but because of the limitations of resources and because of the backlog, do you feel that you're not fulfilling the part of your mandate that involves your initiating complaints? If you feel you're not able to fulfill part of your mandate because you don't have the resources, have you just decided that this is an area that you can control, because you can't control outside complaints and you can certainly control the ones you make yourself? If you've decided you're not going to go to this area because you don't have the resources, what are the consequences in terms of good governance?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
First, if I may correct the record, Mr. Chairman, it was not the RCMP. It was CBSA, the Canada Border Services Agency. I've just been corrected by my staff.
In response to your question, sir, 2007-08 was a year of transition. We were really looking at what we were going to do about this backlog. In 2008-09 we initiated one complaint, which is ongoing, and we've initiated a new one this year. In that sense, it's not that I hesitate to initiate systemic complaints.
What we did this year, however, is devote some of those resources that would have gone to systemic complaints as such, or self-initiated systemic complaints, to enhancing the report card process. You may remember the special report I tabled on 10 institutions; a lot of the resources that we were putting into self-initiated complaints went into this exercise, and I feel that the enhanced report builds a dynamic of compliance that is as strong and as powerful as self-initiated complaints.
I'm not saying that we're not going to do them and that the new reports will replace them, but I feel that self-initiated complaints have to be quite specific. They shouldn't be systemic as such. We'll see where it takes us.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I'll move on to a different table that you provided, table 2, on complaints.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has 221. It has garnered a lot of complaints. It's one of the new institutions that are covered, perhaps stretching some of your resources. Canada Post is another crown corporation listed off there. Of the Canada Post complaints, 32 have been dealt with, so it's a majority, over 60%. Yet the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation doesn't even make it onto table 3, meaning, I presume, that it's less than 10%. We don't have the exact figure, but fewer than 10% appear to have been resolved.
What is the problem? What's going on? Internally, is CBC not able to handle these complaints? Why are these complaints not being resolved by your office? The numbers seem to indicate that there's a serious problem here.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The CBC is a special case. They came under the statute in September 2007, and within a month they were faced with over 500 requests from a single requester. Within 60 days my office received from the same requester some 400 complaints related to those 500 requests. We met with CBC and gave them until April 1, 2009, as a commitment to resolve those. I felt that was reasonable. The complainant has taken the issue to the Federal Court. It is currently before the Federal Court, and the next hearing is on June 3. Of the remaining 221 complaints, we're down to 23, which will be the object of discussion in the Federal Court on June 3.
CBC was in a special position. They were inundated with requests. Some were simple, some complex. They've done a considerable amount of work, but they did not meet the March 31, 2009, deadline that I had set for them, the commitment that they'd made, so I have now initiated 23 investigations on those particular cases. Those investigations are ongoing at this time.
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's good to see you again, Mr. Marleau and Ms. Legault.
Forgive me, Mr. Marleau, for my lack of understanding of the figures here. It's my first time through this process. In your report, you mention that the budget for 2009-10 is $8.5 million. I was given the main estimates line item summary from the Ministry of Justice, which shows the main estimates at $7.54 million. Am I missing something?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
No, it's $7.54 million, which is what you have. Then you have to add on--which they don't put on the same line--$965,000 for the contribution for the employee benefit plan, which totals $8.505 million.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The difference is the statutory contribution for employee benefits.
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Very good. I understand that.
So what you're looking for essentially, then, is an increase of $807,000 from the previous year. If I read your other figures here correctly, you did have an additional 873 complaints between 2007-08 and 2008-09. I'm looking at complaints received: 2,293 in 2008-09 versus 1,420 in 2007-08.
I assume that's because, in this period, the Accountability Act kicked in and there was a significant increase in caseload both for access to information requests and, therefore, for your complaints. So what you're looking for is approximately $1,000 per additional complaint you receive. Does that make sense? Is that roughly what it costs you to resolve these complaints?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I'm trying to be diplomatic in the choice of my words. It's a little too easy to make that--
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Related there, too, is that the Treasury Board requested us to comply with the internal audit policy, and we've had to set up our own ATIP shop. Related to this also is some IT money in terms of--
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Okay. So some additional administrative costs are included. But part of that cost is the extra resources you need to deal with these additional complaints that were generated by the Accountability Act, increasing the workload of the access to information system. Does that follow?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Not quite, and maybe I'll let Suzanne answer that one.
Suzanne Legault Assistant Commissioner, Policy, Communications and Operations, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
What we did last year was this. We basically did a very quick submission to Treasury Board Secretariat to address the additional responsibilities of the FedAA, including, as the commissioner said, the internal audit and the ATIP function. We used previous analyses in terms of how many investigators per complaint, and we did a very quick exercise with Treasury Board. In fact, in that submission there were only five additional investigator positions.
What we agreed with the Treasury Board to do was to come back this year and do a comprehensive exercise, a full A-base review, to then assess the requirements of all the functions of the office based on the workload that we are now facing on an ongoing basis. Last year, it was actually a very quick exercise to address the imperatives of the FedAA.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
You'll have to read, Mr. Chairman, the upcoming supplementary estimates (A) with this to get the true picture.
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Okay. May I ask you a question, then? What would you say is your average cost of resolving a complaint on a case-by-case basis?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I don't have an average cost. You could do the easy thing and just take the number of investigations and...because the investigations are quite complex.
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I understand. Some can be more complex than others.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Some of the administrative ones are easily resolved. Some of them are not. Section 69s are not. It's very hard to come up with a specific figure.
Conservative
Bob Dechert Conservative Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Would you say it's in the hundreds of dollars? I think you mentioned previously that the cost of complying with an access to information request was roughly $1,425 per case to whatever department the information is being requested from. Some of those cases result in complaints.
Let me ask you another question. A minute ago you mentioned that the CBC was the subject of 500 requests from one individual. If I take your number of $1,425 per case as a rough estimate, that one individual, through his or her requests, cost the taxpayers approximately three-quarters of a million dollars. That resulted in approximately 400 complaints to your office.
So in addition to the cost of three-quarters of a million dollars to the CBC to process those access requests, there are another 400 complaints at probably several hundred dollars per complaint to your office. And now that's before the Federal Court. I'm just trying to get an understanding of what the cost of that whole system is.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Well, the cost of the whole system, as I reported to you from the Treasury Board's figures, is about $43 to $44 million.
