Information & Ethics Committee on April 29th, 2013

[Karen Shepherd]

Well, I have an education mandate and, as I've said before at committee, I believe that one of the best ways of ensuring compliance is making sure that everybody understands the rules. I very much take a proactive approach. We've looked at doing a policies and procedures manual and also working on a strategic plan in terms of outreach.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, on the registration side, for example, when a new registrant is coming forward, we actually follow up with them. Webinars are being done by the registration unit on a pretty regular basis, and they are being met with success.

I've mentioned that my team and I met with 900 individuals last year, including lobbyists, public office holders, and parliamentarians. We're very much getting the word out that “Here is the Lobbying Act”, and we're also emphasizing the fact that there is a Lobbyists' Code of Conduct as well. So it's not just that lobbyists are to ensure that they are complying with the act, but also that they are complying with the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

We just had the Privacy Commissioner here. One of the things she mentioned was that her office was going to be moving.

One of the reasons for that was to take advantage of some shared services, in that perhaps she could share with other agencies in the new building in Gatineau they're to move to, in order to get a few agencies under the same umbrella and then share some services, which hopefully would help everybody. I mean, we are in a situation of restraint now, and we're trying to minimize the growth of government, or at least freeze the costs.

Through your estimates, you've indicated your 28 FTEs for the next couple of years and your base budget. Actually, you're doing a good job of coming forward with some minor reductions in your core budget.

Is that part of the strategy as well? Have you looked at other agencies or government departments in which you can have better cooperation and shared services to actually reduce your overhead and your administrative expenses?

[Karen Shepherd]

The answer is yes. I'm also part of the agents of Parliament. Collectively, we are looking at ways in which we can do shared services. There is a group that's moving first and is probably going to be able to put some things in place faster.

It's still in the preliminary stages, so I don't have specific examples at this point, but what I can say is that I'm already in a number of arrangements with service providers. For example, HR, finance, and IT are actually provided through service agreements. I am taking advantage of Public Works, for example, which has shared services on their HR side.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Do I still have some time, Mr. Chair? Yes?

I noticed some year-over-year fluctuations in the office's internal services program activity. Can you explain the reduced spending authorities between 2011-12 and 2012-13? Can you also explain why this year's request for authorities has increased?

[René Leblanc, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying]

What page are you on?

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

It's the internal services program.

[Karen Shepherd]

I think, if I'm recalling....

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I'm sorry, but I don't have the page number.

[René Leblanc]

Page 10? Is it where it says “1,749” and then “1,705”?

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Yes.

[Karen Shepherd]

Some of the expenditures that we have had in the main estimates before were because we've had some of the superannuation payments and the terminations that occurred in I think 2012-13—last year's.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

They're one-time smaller fluctuations because of certain circumstances. We all know that when you put a budget together, you do your best guesstimate, right?

[Karen Shepherd]

Yes.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Things can happen. The actuals aren't always what the budget numbers are, and that's because you've had an anomaly in one year, or because something has happened. As long as you can properly report back as to why that is, then I think that's certainly fine.

Is that it, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

Mr. Butt, your time is up.

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

Mr. Andrews, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome again, Commissioner, and thanks for coming in.

In your opening statement, you mentioned the new search features that are available. Could you just give us a little more of an idea of how these new search features are working? Do you have any statistics on who is using the search features? Have you noticed increased traffic through your website on the search features?

[Karen Shepherd]

In terms of the question, on searches that were done last year, I think there were 175,000 actual searches. In terms of users of the system, I think the media is using it quite a bit. We're seeing a lot of stories now in The Lobby Monitor, for example, on a day in the life of the registry.

In terms of what it's allowing you to do, it allows you to search any field. For any field that has been inputted, such as public office holders or departments, those searches can be done. Trends can be looked at. It's easier to search communication reports. It's making it a lot easier. It's possible to do downloads and stuff like that as well now.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

How quickly are you getting the data into the search engine?

[Karen Shepherd]

As soon as the registration is up on the system, I believe. That's something I can verify; my understanding is that it's once the registration data is live.

[René Leblanc]

It searches the live database.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay.

You talked about the consultation you're doing on the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct. Do you have any outline of how that consultation is going to work this fall and who you are going to try to target for consultations?

[Karen Shepherd]

Well, because of the limitations of the budget, I'm going to take advantage of the web, largely, so anybody checking the site will be able to.... That said, in my outreach that I've been doing now, especially with public office holders, I've been mentioning the fact that I am going to be launching this consultation and that I will be writing to particular groups, letting them know that this is up on then website, and encouraging them to participate.

So for parliamentarians, for example, I'm hoping that they will look at it as well and provide comments.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

The outcomes will go in the code of conduct or you'll make those recommendations to go—