Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today as you consider our budgetary submission for the 2010-11 Main Estimates.
I'm accompanied at the table by Lyne Robinson-Dalpé, assistant commissioner for advisory and compliance, and Denise Benoit, director of corporate management. They will assist me in answering your questions after my opening remarks.
I see there are a number of new members of this committee. For their benefit and to refresh the memory of the others, I will begin by providing a brief overview of the mandate and work of the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. Then I will outline how our renewed budget will help us continue our work as the current fiscal year unfolds.
As most of you know, my office administers the conflict of interest code for members of the House of Commons and the Conflict of Interest Act for public office holders. These two regimes seek to ensure that public officials, whether elected or appointed, are not in a conflict of interest. I'm also mandated to provide confidential advice to the Prime Minister about conflict of interest and ethics issues.
My staff and I review confidential reports of assets, liabilities, and activities, maintain public registries of publicly declarable information, and investigate and report on cases of alleged non-compliance. Our primary goal is prevention. Our focus is not on penalizing people for non-compliance, but on assisting them to comply with the code and the act.
Through the hard work of my staff, we have eliminated what was once a large backlog of members and public office holders who were not in compliance. In addition, in recent months we've been putting a great deal of effort into working on several high-profile investigations, and my intent is that my reports on these will be released in the near future.
For the last three years my office has been allocated annual funds of $7.1 million. Although we lapsed a portion of funds in each of the previous two years, each year we lapse less funding as we move forward with the organization and staffing of my office. We're very close now to being fully staffed and expect to utilize most of our allocation for 2010-11.
Mindful of the budgetary constraints facing the government, my office has already implemented measures consistent with those required of departments and agencies. These include capping travel, conference, and hospitality expenditures, as well as limiting salary increases to 1.5%. Those increases will be absorbed within our existing budgetary envelope, as we're not seeking an increase to the $7.1 million we were allocated in each of the last two fiscal years. Salaries and benefits account for the largest single component, some $5.3 million of our budget.
In the years ahead, my office will continue to focus on helping members of the House of Commons and public office holders to comply with their obligations under the members code and the Conflict of Interest Act. Our advisors will continue to assist them in setting up arrangements involving trusts, which are quite unique in many cases, and advising on outside activities. These arrangements are subject to review each year. Our advisors will continue to respond to inquiries from those who are covered by the code or the act, and to take a number of other steps through meetings, correspondence, guidelines, and information notices to help members and public office holders understand how the code or the act applies to their specific situations.
We will pursue, as we have in the past, a wide range of communications, education, and outreach activities and initiatives. For example, my staff and I will continue to meet with ministerial staff, make additional presentations to party caucuses, and provide advisory opinions on issues of general application to members and public office holders. We will also continue to make improvements to the way we provide information to our clients, in particular, through our website.
We are taking steps to strengthen our ties with organizations in other jurisdictions. My office has a new coordination role in the Canadian Conflict of Interest Network, which includes federal, provincial, and territorial commissioners; and we're continuing our involvement with the U.S.-based Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, known as COGEL.
I hope to continue to work with Parliament and its committees to make improvements to the rules I'm administering, or make them more widely understood. For example, last year my office advised the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on possible amendments to the code relating to gifts and other benefits. This resulted in significant changes to the code. At the request of the committee, we have recently submitted proposals to it for improvements to the code in the areas of disclosures and inquiries.
As you can appreciate, there's an element of unpredictability associated with the operations of my office. In recent months we've been involved with a number of investigations, each of which must be given due process, and some of which have been quite complex. Of course, I have no way of anticipating how many investigations we will deal with from year to year or the amount of work each will involve.
Mr. Chair, I would like to conclude my opening remarks by restating my belief that our proposed budget for 2010-2011 will be sufficient for our needs as they currently stand. Within it, we will be able to sustain our efforts to ensure that members and public office holders meet their respective obligations under Canada's conflict of interest regimes.
Thank you once again for inviting me to come before the Committee to discuss the Main Estimates. I will now be happy to answer any questions you may have.
