Evidence of meeting #7 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 requests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thanks once again, Mr. Marleau.
You have stated several times that the Access to Information Act must be modernized. We know that 139 recommendations were made in 2002, but that no action was taken on this report. Members of Parliament have tabled requests for changes to the act on a number of occasions. Some changes have been made, but nothing in-depth has been done.
I am pleased that my colleague, Ms. Freeman, the Bloc Québécois critic on privacy and ethics, will be tabling a bill to modernize the act during this 40th Parliament. Mr. Asselin asked a question a little earlier about political will. I hope my colleague's bill will be supported by colleagues here, particularly those on the government side, who would simply like to do more than the Liberals did in the past. I would be very pleased if my colleagues opposite were to support Ms. Freeman's bill.
Earlier you said that 10 individuals submit many of the requests. I want to be sure that you are not talking about 10 individuals, but rather 10 associations or categories of people.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I was not talking about people requesting information. The list I provided was of people who filed complaints with the Office of the Commissioner. They are in fact 10 individuals.
Bloc
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
In the case of a complaint on a business matter, the complainant could be a small law firm, for example. This is a list of 10 users who complain to our office.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Most of them are individuals.
Bloc
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I see.
Your first table states at the top that 14 complaints come from parliamentarians, while the second table makes no reference to parliamentarians. Is that because parliamentarians stopped complaining or because their complaints received priority?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
This is what makes statistics so wonderful. The first table refers to a complainant in the parliamentary category. This is not necessarily a parliamentarian; it could be a staff member of a member of Parliament or a senator. This category accounted for 1% of the complaints. The second table shows the entire inventory, and this category accounts for less than 1% and therefore disappeared.
Bloc
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I see.
I would like to ask you one last question. What are the major differences between your recommendations and the draft bill put forward by Mr. Reid?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Several recommendations have points in common. The ones proposed by Mr. Reid and those that are included in your colleague's bill, that mirrors Mr. Martin's bill, which is currently on the Order Paper of the House of Commons, go much further with certain issues. This is the case, for instance, a review of exemptions and exclusions in an attempt to make them all discretionary. I did not go that far, because I did not want to raise a debate that would lead to broader discussion. I wanted to present to the committee 12 recommendations which, in my opinion, were supported by all the users of the system. Moreover, they would help to improve the discipline and the performance of the departments that are subject to the Access to Information Act. That was my objective.
I am not rejecting any of the things that I did not include in my recommendations, but I also recognize the fact that if we insist on discussing the commissioner's power to issue absolute orders, the debate will be a very lengthy one.
Bloc
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Although my colleague's bill goes further than your recommendations do, it would be very good if it were adopted.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
As I said in my opening statements, I fully support the bill that was tabled by my predecessor. As a former clerk of the House of Commons, I know that this will require a ministerial initiative and a royal recommendation. I also know that the standing orders allow the government to make this a government bill.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As reflected in this table you provided to us, I note that not only do the top ten users generate 50% of your work, but more specifically, three individuals generate one-third of your work. Does that not strike you as, at the very least, interesting?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
To be fair, though, they are complainants, not users. There's a little difference. But does it strike me as peculiar? It struck me as peculiar the first time I saw those statistics.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
You have an $8-million budget, and a third of your work—a third of your work—comes from three Canadians.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Which is why, if you look at the business model that we've put in place and that we're going forward to try to finance, you'll see that we introduced an early resolution evaluation unit, intake unit, and we've set some triage criteria to make sure these users do not completely dominate the process of complaints.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
As they are.
What percentage would you consider frivolous and vexatious? You used those words earlier.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
In the access community, whether it's frivolous and vexatious depends on which side of the fence you're on. I've had discussions with my colleagues in the provinces. My predecessors have never identified a single frivolous or vexatious request, and so far neither have I. One of my colleagues, in Alberta, where the law does provide for dealing with frivolous and vexatious requests, has had only one case in his history.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
I have many questions, so I'm going to have to cut it short there.
Is there a fee associated with making a request?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
There's a five-dollar fee for making a request. There's no fee for filing a complaint.
