Evidence of meeting #39 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 records.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:05 a.m.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
In fact, in your opinion, it's a matter of time and organization for the storage of all available material before it is made available to the public?
10:05 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
Yes, but I also believe a legislative framework is provided by Parliament and the Department of Justice that will determine what is done in this area in future. We apply the acts and regulations that are in place.
10:05 a.m.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
The directive went into effect last June. In six months, what has been done in practice for its implementation? Have any quantitative work measures been introduced, statistical measures, for example?
10:05 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
We didn't wait until the directive was in place before starting our work.
We've been addressing this problem for some time now. We have a strategy and an implementation plan that are spread over five years. We are already in the second year of the implementation of that plan. One of the elements of the plan was precisely to put this directive in place. We're currently developing policy elements that support this document.
A concrete example of what has been done is the establishment of an inventory of best practices and solutions that the various departments use. We have hundreds of solutions—that can be shared among institutions or used as examples—combined in an inventory available for all persons responsible for implementing this policy.
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Why wasn't there a presentation on this plan in this morning's presentations?
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
You're talking about a plan on...?
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
The information management plan? We were invited to discuss the directive, but I'd be pleased to talk to you a little about the implementation plan, if you wish.
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I think it's important for the entire committee to take a look at this plan.
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
There's a specific plan for the implementation of this new directive and, at the same time, a plan with a vision for information management within the government. These two plans work together and are very closely linked.
The directive implementation plan is a plan over five years, as I mentioned in my presentation. It starts precisely with this idea of making the new policy known across the public service. Then the idea is really to provide the necessary tools for its implementation and, from there, to move toward an ongoing improvement process.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Pardon me, Monsieur Dorion.
I guess the member is basically asking if this is something that would be useful for the committee to know, to see what's coming down, in order to get a better appreciation of the broader context, and is it available?
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
Absolutely. We have both an implementation plan for the recordkeeping directive and our five-year information management strategy and plan, both of which we could share with this committee if you would like.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Monsieur Dorion, do you want to have that document? Okay? It might be helpful.
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
Certainly.
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I think this is of prime importance for the entire committee, and I would even add that it would have been very important for us to have this plan this morning.
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
I'm going to go to Mr. Siksay.
Then I'm going to come back to you, Madam Freeman, so that you can discuss cette affaire.
Mr. Siksay, please.
10:10 a.m.
Bloc
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Gentlemen, I wonder if you could tell me how the new directive on recordkeeping differs from the former policy on management of government information. Are there things about the new directive that are innovations, as opposed to the former policy?
10:10 a.m.
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat
Certainly, the former policy on information management had just four requirements; the new policy on information has nine. Then there is this directive as well as the directive on roles and responsibilities that are the companion pieces to the policy. Largely, we've gone to something that is much more explicit in terms of what the requirements are, how those requirements are to be implemented. The previous policies did not have as explicit a statement of consequences. I realize you have to go to the Financial Administration Act and the policy on consequences to interpret what that section 7 means, particularly sections 7.2 and 7.3, but those are some of the significant changes.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Was there a parallel in the former policy to section 6.2.1 on reporting difficulties or gaps in performance? Is that a new section or was there something parallel in the former policy document?
