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.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
There are various charts of complaints. Were any of these complaints from whistle-blowers within ATIP sections, or are these strictly complaints from people who have made access requests?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
No, these are all complaints that come from access requesters. There may be a whistle-blower in there, but I wouldn't know. I don't know what you mean by whistle-blower.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
When you were previously before the committee, I referenced some of the work public accounts had done with the ATIP section within the RCMP. Evidence came forward during that committee hearing of files being misfiled. There were allegations made at the committee table that it was done under instructions from above. There were allegations of files being replaced.
Do you receive any of those types of complaints from ATIP sections, or have you during your term?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I've not received them from ATIP sections. I can confirm that I have two current investigations ongoing that relate to those kinds of issues. I'm not at liberty to discuss them, obviously, but I have two that relate to the same kind of issue.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I would assume this type of investigation would most likely take a very different approach and might have a different cost component than the regular type of complaint. Or would the same sort of approach be used?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It's difficult to qualify it by cost component. If we're dealing with an allegation of destruction of documents or deliberate concealment of documents, subsection 67(1) of the statute makes it a criminal offence.
So yes, we take a different approach and a different attitude to it. This is not mediation and trying to cooperate and trying to resolve the issue; the investigation is much more rigorous in that process.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I understand that you can't get into the details of these particular complaints. Which departments, though, are under this type of investigation?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Mr. Chairman, I would prefer not to identify the departments, because it may also identify some of the individuals associated with those complaints.
Liberal
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I was actually going to pass this on for a quick question by Madam Simson.
Liberal
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
Okay.
Your charts are very, very helpful, by the way. Thank you very much.
I was looking at the refusal complaints. Obviously a good deal of the financial resources are tied up in investigations. You currently have a triage system, I assume. It's maybe not the ideal one that you want to have, but you have a triage system. Would refusal complaints get more of a priority, say, than administrative complaints?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I wouldn't call it a priority. It would get a better weighting, as in “heavy”.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
Okay. Fair enough.
I was just taken by the fact that they probably would get weighted, but in my mind, the turnaround times for the number of closed complaints that took more than two years to resolve is a category that has risen quite dramatically. For same-agency and outright refusal complaints, I guess I'm trying to figure out how long it takes on average for your office to determine that they're not substantiated.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Well, only at the tail—
Liberal
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It's only at the tail end of the investigation, and that could take two years. But once you get into that category, particularly the lengthy ones, you're either looking at very large volumes of pages or the more sensitive parts of the statutes, such as national security, and those kinds of things. So they get more complex to investigate and they take longer.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
I was just looking at the correlation, only because you'd stated that initiating a Federal Court action, obviously, wouldn't be your first line of attack. Mediation would be.
How expensive the investigation was and how long it would take would have a direct impact on your budget. In some cases, would it not make sense just to proceed to Federal Court, particularly in, say, an outright refusal case?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Not necessarily, because if I took an extra year to negotiate and got a resolution, it would probably take me four years in court if I went the year before.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The court is a very important component; don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I shouldn't and would not go to court. It's a very important component.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
No, but say an agency were served with the fact and knew that you were going to go to court. That can sometimes be a strong motivator to say, “Okay, the negotiations are over”, and it would bring about some compliance.
