Evidence of meeting #14 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was togneri.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
I'm sorry. Do I respond? Yes?
Okay. Can you just repeat it so that I have it clearly?
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Mr. Valeriote had asked this and your response was.... I'm trying to get clarification as to what your intent was, to communicate to this committee what the meaning is of what you said. You explained the last part of it. But the first part of what you said was, and I quote, “...it wasn't my intention to delay or obstruct...”.
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
Yes.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Does that imply--and I'm asking you to please advise us--that you understand that you did delay or obstruct?
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
No. No, it doesn't. But--
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
--just to clarify, though, I didn't know what happened. I didn't know that it took two months, two and a half months, to release this. I didn't know that only part of a document would be released.
What I was told by ATI officers was that they could work with the requester to get either exactly what they wanted for the initial $5 fee or they could charge the requester the amount of money it takes--which I think in this case was about $30--for the entire report. I didn't know after that conversation that it would take two and a half months and, as it says in the media reports, the requester wasn't given the choice, wasn't contacted, and I don't know why that didn't happen.
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
So I didn't know that.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your clarifying that for the committee.
Mr. Rickford, please.
May 11th, 2010 / 11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, thank you to the witness for reappearing at this committee. I can assure the witness today that I'm going to ask questions and make commentary, and you're free to answer to the extent that I'm satisfied with the answer. I will not tolerate the chair intervening on that basis. I want you to feel comfortable with that.
I also want to apologize for some of the things that have been rather unusual, going back to the last meeting and in fact occurring at this meeting, to the extent that you were compelled to be sworn in. All witnesses at the committee have an obligation at law to speak the truth and the whole truth. So I apologize for the political charade that we appear to be going through.
Furthermore, the chair of this committee actually went public with comments to the media that you would be threatened with contempt. And today, as we've seen, he's actually denying your ability to give answers that at no point today have actually been interrupted by any of the members of this committee, except for one of my colleagues across the way. And the general tone of these questions has been heavily politicized. I might remark and add that the same level of courage, if you will, was not demonstrated when the minister was here, who's the one who's really supposed to be answering these questions and did so at previous meetings with respect to these issues. This kind of intimidation, sir, I apologize for, on behalf of all parliamentarians.
I appreciate, furthermore, the willingness of this government to have ministers and their staff come before this committee and answer questions in what we thought--and hoped for--would be in non-politicized way. I think it's fair to say that had we had this sort of transparency in years gone by, Canadians wouldn't be asking where the heck their $39 million went in the Liberal Adscam. Unfortunately, that wasn't available to--
I'm timing it, Mr. Chair. It's okay. I have a sense of where I'm going with this....
Well, it's important, because the clock has been stopped when the witness has been consulting his lawyer, another unusual event, I think.
I have a series of questions here for you. You acknowledged at the last meeting and today that you made a mistake. Did you make a mistake?
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
I did make a mistake. Yes.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
And you've also acknowledged that you did nothing of substance with the document. Is that correct?
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
That's right. Yes.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
I made a mistake. I don't know what happened to the documents. I don't redact. I never redact. I can't--
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
That's my next question, so this is an example of the committee member intervening. I'm satisfied with the answer that you gave me.
So you're saying for the record that you didn't redact the document.
11:55 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
That's right. Yes.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
It sounds to me like you were going to add a few extra thoughts there.
11:55 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
No, not really, other than there was never any intention to delay or obstruct. So as far as I know...I'm just anxious to see the report of the Information Commissioner.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
I believe you mentioned that this is the only time you had an experience like this.
11:55 a.m.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Director, Department of Public Works and Government Services, As an Individual
Yes. Yes, in many different ways, but yes.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Okay. And that you did not engage ATIP officials at any point in this process?
