Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to be here before you today.
My name is Denise Brennan.
For the past six years, I have been the director in charge of the unit that processes all access to information and privacy requests submitted to the Treasury Board Secretariat.
I hold the full delegated authority in the secretariat to process and approve these requests for final release.
Today I will provide you with a brief overview of the procedures that the secretariat has in place to action access to information and privacy requests.
The Treasury Board Secretariat’s access to information and privacy unit is proud of its record and we believe strongly in the spirit of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. We also strive to lead by example.
Our record stands for itself. The Treasury Board Secretariat response rate for responding to access to information requests on time has been 97% and 98% for the past two years and 100% for all privacy requests. Like every other department, this information is published in our annual reports to Parliament, which are also posted on the secretariat’s website.
In accordance with the provisions of the ATI act, many of our requests require consultations in order to provide the most complete and accurate information available to the requester. We are confident that our process allows us to respond to requests within legislated timeframes.
Upon receipt of a request, my office identifies the request as routine or “high visibility”. Within the first 10 days, we seek clarification if necessary. We provide a search estimate or we retrieve the records and obtain recommendations from the sector on exemptions.
Within the next 15 days, my office reviews records and recommendations and prepares the records for release. Three days before the file is released, if my office has identified a request as high visibility, we advise the Secretary of the Treasury Board and the Office of the President of the Treasury Board, for information purposes only.
Our communications sector is notified at the same time so that communications products can be prepared if necessary. Our aim is to complete this entire process within 30 days of receiving the initial request. In fact, in 2009-10 we achieved this goal for 74% of our files.
Now, a few words on our best practices. Departmental officials in the secretariat are informed and are well aware of our process, our progress and our performance. We provide weekly updates on progress toward achieving the above deadlines by sector. This report is provided to the president's office and senior officials to ensure we maintain our high performance standards. Upon arrival of a new president, my unit informs the new president's staff of the secretariat access to information process. We also provide training sessions to Treasury Board Secretariat managers and employees on our process and timelines.
Finally, I would like to address an issue that has been of recent interest to this committee: political interference in access to information requests. Since I have held this position, no president of the Treasury Board or any of their staff has ever prevented the release of a document to respond to an access to information request or asked that redactions be altered.
In conclusion, my team and I are committed to the principles of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, in providing timely access to government documents. We are proud of our performance and our record. I would be pleased to answer any questions that the committee may have. Thank you.