Evidence of meeting #7 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 institutions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Thank you.
I have a little bit of business to do, but Mr. Easter said he did have one last wee question.
Quickly, please, Mr. Easter.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Yes, it relates to the issue you've just been on. It has come up several times: the difficulty of staffing, understaffing, and how it slows down the process. You're just mentioning that Privy Council is habitually understaffed. They've had 17 full-time staff all along, although they're approved for 27 full-time equivalents.
This was during the good times when the government was basically spending the country into deficit. Now we have a deficit and we have a freeze imposed. Has the government given you any indication of how they're going to deal with this staffing issue when they have the freeze in place? Or is the understaffing that's already there going to become a problem?
12:50 p.m.
Interim Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Mr. Chairman, I must say that I did look at the amount of money for the 24 institutions that have been subject to the report cards this year. I looked at their main estimates and how much money they lapsed last year. They all have lapsed significant amounts of money, in the range of millions of dollars. If I remember correctly, PCO lapsed $12 million last year.
I have no indication that people will not be able to--the $12 million is correct, by the way-- staff within their current contingency, but a few institutions did indicate that the freeze might cause them issues. But the information on the main estimates reassures me that if there is a will, there should be a way, money-wise, with these institutions.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
There is another committee coming in for one o'clock, so we do have to wind it down. I simply want to note that your predecessor, Commissioner, made the statement that 30 days has become the exception rather than the norm, which I think was prophetic, in that.... He had some other comments.
But you both agreed on one thing and that was the need for leadership among the ministries and the directors to show the culture of transparency. I guess we're going to have to continue to work on it, but I appreciate it very much that you and your team have done the report. I think it was a helpful report for us to continue to monitor. I know that Mr. Poilievre raised the idea of tracking or trending. I think it's going to be very important for us to have an institutional memory.
Now, just for the benefit of the members, here's what's happening in our coming meetings. Next week, we have the Commissioner of Lobbying on Tuesday for the estimates, and on Thursday we have the Ethics Commissioner for the main estimates. The following week, we have the Privacy Commissioner on Tuesday, the 27th, and then the Information Commissioner will be back before us two weeks from today and will be helping us put some meat on the bones for our proactive disclosure discussions and projects. I will have the clerk circulate this information to you, but I wanted you to know at least for preparation purposes that we have lobbying on Tuesday and ethics on Thursday.
For our items on Google's Street View and the draft report, which you have, as well as the issue on order-in-council appointments that Madam Freeman raised, we're going to carry those forward at each meeting, so that should there be any excess time, we will try to deal with them.
Thank you kindly. We're adjourned.