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.
Conservative
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yes, sir.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I assume you have processes in place to look at what's going wrong and how to fix it.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
We have. I've been at DFAIT for just over six years now, and we have been working continuously toward building the right capacity as well as putting in place all the required processes to meet legislative obligations.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I assume you're reviewing, so is it a lack of capacities as well as financial people?
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
It's a combination of factors: the perfect storm. The global environment in which we live has resulted in an increased interest in DFAIT subject matters. From 2004-05 to 2008-09, over that four-year span we had a total increase of 78% in ATIP demands, so our capacity has just not been able to keep pace due to financial restraints. DFAIT had financial restraints, strategic review, like other institutions, but I and my senior officials up to the minister's office all agree that ATIP obligations are to be abided by, and we are working right now on addressing those shortfalls so we can have a better result in the years to come.
Conservative
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I'm very pleased to tell you all that Public Works and Government Services Canada received a B grade, four and a half stars out of five, for the 2008-09 fiscal year. If we were to be assessed for the 2009-10 fiscal year, we would receive an A, five stars out of five. Our performance so far this fiscal year is driving toward that same score of five stars out of five with an A grade rating.
Conservative
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
With HRSDC for the report in question, we graded as a C, or three-star rating. As mentioned, that was for the previous fiscal year. We're trending toward a higher grade for the upcoming year.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Okay. When we look at the actual turnaround time in the ATI requests, do you feel it's improving? Do you feel you're getting the resources? Do you need more resources? I guess we always need more resources, but in this environment do you think you have what you need to do the job?
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
I think certainly within our operations area for processing access to information requests, we have a team with a lot of experience and a solid structure. I feel that we have adequate resources for our operations area.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm still interested in these 100-and-some pages. That's a bit like the missing section of the Watergate tapes to me. In any event, Mr. Makichuk, you said you have delegated authority under the act. Who else would have delegated authority under the act, and would Mr. Togneri have any of that authority?
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Within the Department of Public Works and Government Services, the delegation begins at the minister, is delegated to the deputy minister, the associate deputy minister, the director general executive secretariat, my position, director, access to information and privacy, then to my managers, my chiefs, my senior staff and my staff.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
You're certainly hired from within the department. As I said earlier, one of our concerns on this side of the House, and I think increasingly of Canadians--and it comes, to a certain extent, to the questions the parliamentary secretary asked--is that it's always about the message from the government, the manipulation of the message to make it look different from what it really is. That's why we're trying to drill down into this issue on access to information on Mr. Togneri.
You said earlier in your testimony that there is a weekly meeting with representatives from the minister's office, and that Mr. Togneri was one of those people at the meeting. How many people would be involved in that meeting?
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The meeting consists of a representative from the minister's office, a representative from the associate deputy's office, representatives from my office, representatives from communications, and at times there will be branch representatives, if there is specific material related to a branch being discussed, as well as my director general.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Okay.
The difficulty here, in terms of that discussion.... Is the discussion around that weekly meeting on requests that come in, what's to be released, basically?
We know as well that this government is all about intimidation. The fact that somebody from the minister's office is there.... Mr. Togneri, in terms of the decision to unrelease.... We now know that 100 plus pages didn't get released. And as my colleague said earlier, Mr. Togneri was clearly in violation of the act. But does the department feel intimidated by the minister's staff? Is there any kind of intimidation? Do you feel intimidated at those weekly meetings? Because the pressure is on; your job's on the line. You're directly responsible up the line.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Mr. Chair, there's been a series of questions asked here. I'll do my best to respond to them.
The first matter is that indeed, in the initial disclosure, only 30 pages of the report were disclosed. Furthermore, when a request was received specifically identifying the report in itself, the entire report was disclosed.
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Indeed. But the request itself was received two and a half months later as well. Let me clarify that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Mr. Makichuk and Mr. Easter, several questions with less than a minute to go is going to throw us way off.
We've got about half a minute left. There will be another round. I think we have to keep it to one question and the answer, question and answer. So if there's something that you would say in the last half minute, please go ahead.
All right. We'll move on and we'll think about it.
Ms. Davidson.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to ask a couple of questions of Ms. McCulloch, please. We've heard a little bit about the challenges you're facing at DFAIT and the backlogs and the challenges of trying to handle that and the reports that you've got from the commissioner's office and so on. I certainly wish you well in that. I know you've got a huge job ahead of you.
You talked a bit about the best practices and you also talked about DFAIT's COMM Alert process. Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? Is it part of your process to try to address the backlogs?
Director, Access to Information and Privacy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
No. Actually our communication alert process is basically the process in place to provide senior departmental officials, our communication branches, up to and including the minister's office, an opportunity to prepare any communication products, whether QP notes or media lines to prepare for an Access to Information Act release.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
The 72 hours prior to that, I think it says in your opening remarks, is the timeframe for that.