Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[Monique McCulloch]

I have full authority to do so, by virtue of my position as director. I have full delegating authority to deal with all access to information requests.

[Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Are you the only person who has that authority?

[Monique McCulloch]

No, my assistant directors have the authority as well.

[Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Overall, how many individuals have this authority?

[Monique McCulloch]

Well, there's myself and three assistant directors, for a total of four people in my office.

Ms. Dubé and the deputy ministers have been delegated the authority as well, but it's really my team that handles requests.

[Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

How do you handle any complaints that are filed?

[Monique McCulloch]

We work closely with the commissioner's investigators and if additional research is necessary, we get in touch with the program officials involved. We review, and sometimes, re-evaluate, information that is provided to be certain that there isn't any other information that could be turned over.

[Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

You said something about five days—

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Your time is up, Ms. Thi Lac.

Mrs. Davidson is next for five minutes.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

I probably won't use the full five minutes, so I'll share my time with Mr. Calandra, if I may.

Mr. Cossette, you said you were the one responsible for seeing that this situation improved, and that the next report card will certainly show improvements.

Can you tell me how long you've been in your position and how many people you have on your team?

[Gérald Cossette]

I've been the associate deputy minister since June 1 last year. I don't have a team per se; I have my office and four assistants on my staff.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

I'll pass the rest of my time to Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you.

I won't have a lot of questions. I think my most of my colleagues have asked you a lot of questions.

I'll just take a moment, if I can, to stray a touch and just thank the department. I know it's been an extraordinary year for you, with a successful G-8, a successful G-20, and of course the visit from the Queen. And of course we're negotiating free trade agreements with a lot of different countries in the European Union. So it's been a very, very busy time for you. I wanted to thank you for that and pass along my thanks to the entire department for their hard work.

I heard what my colleague Mr. Easter from Prince Edward Island said. I know he lamented some of the difficulty with the passports. I come from a riding, of course, that has 170,000 people, which I think is more than the entire island of P.E.I. So I can understand the hardship with passports. But my office, of course, is quite capable of helping out where possible. I'm sure that the four members in P.E.I., or perhaps the three others, can pitch in when Mr. Easter's office gets a bit overloaded.

What was your budget in 2005?

[Gérald Cossette]

In 2005, the overall spending was $2.23 million.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

It was $2.2 million.

[Gérald Cossette]

Yes, in 2005-06.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Yes. It's clear why you were getting bad report cards in 2005.

In 2006 there was a change in government, and that coincides with the shining of the lights with respect to access to information. Finally, a government was elected that really opened up governments to the people, and I'm proud to say it's my government.

The right side was expanded last month by two members. I think there are 70 new institutions responding to access to information requests. We're moving a lot faster. Maybe one day we'll get some other ones in there. Perhaps the CBC will start to listen a bit, too.

Your budget, you said, was now close to $8.25 million. Am I correct on that?

[Gérald Cossette]

Yes.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

So it's a significant increase from where the previous government in the decade of darkness had you, which is quite encouraging. You're obviously moving in the right direction.

There's a quote I have here from the analyst's report. I commend the analysts for a good report. It says the ATIP office is pleased to report that:

...in June 2010 DFAIT reallocated $2.7M of additional ATIP funding. This injection of new funding will, amongst other things, permit DFAIT to clear the backlog of ATIP files by summer 2011 as well as build additional permanent capacity to meet expected demands.

Overall, we're moving in the right direction, and I'm very encouraged by what you've said. I hope that if you do run into difficulties in the future, you'll be able to come back to us and let us know what we need to do to encourage you to get to the A that we all so want to see.

This is my final comment. How effective are you at working with other departments to learn what they're doing to meet the backlogs? Do you work with other departments? Are you working in a silo, or has the light we've asked to be shone on government really been shone in response to some of the changes our government has made since 2006?

[Gérald Cossette]

In fact, we are exchanging “lessons learned” with departments across town. The ATIP experts in all departments work together to make sure that best practices are being implemented across government.

The issue is that we have our own obligations, given the international mandate that we have to pursue. Therefore, there are limitations on the kinds of lessons we can share with others.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you. That concludes the questions.

Before we adjourn I'm going to ask you, Mr. Cossette, if you have any closing remarks or comments you want to make to the committee.

[Gérald Cossette]

There are two things I would like to stress.

First, we expect that the commissioner's report for the current fiscal year will be a bad report, given that we need time to put in place the initiatives that I have talked about. But unless there is a significant unforeseen increase in demand, we are on the right track. Next year we should see a significant decrease in the delays in the processing of applications. I am confident that we will significantly improve our performance over the coming year, and we should be in a position before long to come back to you and show progress.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Mr. Cossette, Madame Dubé, and Ms. McCulloch, on behalf of all members of the committee, I want to thank you for your appearance today.

I want to leave you with the message that the committee certainly views this issue very seriously. Needless to say, the committee will be following up on this. It has been long-standing for many years. Canadians expect other Canadians to follow the law, and certainly other departments to follow the law.

If I can use an analogy, one of the laws we follow is to file an income tax return. If I said in April that my income tax was complicated or I didn't have the resources to file it, I don't think I'd get a very sympathetic ear.

I just want to leave you with those comments. I wish you all the best as you move forward. I think your hearts are in the right place, but we'll certainly be dealing with you again.

Thank you very much.

[Gérald Cossette]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

The meeting is adjourned.