Evidence of meeting #17 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 requests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I don't have a weekly meeting with issues managers, no.
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
No, we don't have any weekly discussions or meetings with the issues management office at PCO.
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Treasury Board Secretariat
It's the same for us--no weekly meetings with issues management.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Mr. Makichuk, I just want to come back to you. Who is Jillian Andrews? Mr. Togneri referenced her in an earlier discussion we had. Who is she?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Mr. Chair, I've never met Jillian Andrews, so I don't know her. But I'm of the understanding that she was a staffer within Minister Paradis' office.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I'm not in a position to answer that.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
I want to go back to the issue I started out with. Clearly, Mr. Togneri was in violation of the act, the Access to Information Act. I guess we all acknowledge that. He's acknowledged that, as having made a stupid mistake.
Knowing that he was in violation of the act—you would have known that, and all of those who had reached a consensus that the release of this information was the right thing to do—why would anyone listen to Mr. Togneri when he asked to have the information unreleased, knowing that what he was doing was in fact in violation of the act?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I don't recall there being any consideration as to whether the act was being violated or not at that time.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Does that ever come into consideration at any time when you're fulfilling requests in terms of ATIP requests or requests from the media? Does it ever come into play whether this is the right thing to do and we need to do it, regardless of what you're being asked to do?
I don't know if others have asked you questions with respect to other exempt staff who have asked you to do things. Obviously Mr. Togneri did. Would that not play into your decision or the decision of the bureaucrats who are in charge, whether or not it was in violation of the act that you're charged with upholding?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Mr. Chair, as I've mentioned, I'm a delegated authority under the act, as are my staff. Anyone in the department does question us on decisions that we've made. Access to information is a process that's administered by human beings. It's not done by machines or computers. It's a matter of judgment and interpretation of the law. Many times lawyers get involved to assist us in that application of the law. If anyone raises a question on a file, we will take pause to listen and give consideration.
We are experts in the law. We are not experts in the subject matter of the documents.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Thank you, Chair, and again I thank everybody for coming out this morning.
Ms. Wesch, you talked about grading. You are graded--you said you had a C grade. Could you just elaborate on what that grading system consists of, and who does it?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Privy Council Office
The grade I was referring to was a grade by the Office of the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner does an annual review, and it's not just a grade. The last report had a letter grade, a star system, and also gave an overall assessment. For the year we just completed, we had 82% of our requests on time, and that would equate--if the commissioner uses the same criteria--to a C grade.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Would she use the same criteria right across other areas, for other ministries?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Privy Council Office
Yes, she would use the same criteria.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
She'd look at the process of how you're meeting internal time limits or timeframes and then how you're getting the documents out. Is that correct?
12:25 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Privy Council Office
That's right. A lot of it is based on lates. The business is run by which files go late.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Okay.
I'll just go across the board here. Ms. Brennan, how did you grade?
12:30 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Treasury Board Secretariat
We've never been graded.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I'm the total opposite of the Treasury Board. For the last decade, DFAIT has had the pleasure of being graded by the Office of the Information Commissioner. I have to admit we are an institution that has been struggling to meet ATIP legislative deadlines due to a number of factors, including capacity issues. This past report card, the Information Commissioner was greatly concerned by DFAIT's inability to meet Access to Information Act deadlines. In fact, we were deemed off the charts--not even an F grade.
