Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My colleague has raised some concerns about the fact that we would be asking agents of Parliament to change the hiring process.
My amendment aims to restore the situation. I am referring to clause 7. This specific amendment requests that the provisions of this bill be limited to persons who have decision-making power or who have influence. I have previously mentioned my concerns on this matter.
Now I would like to share something that we have not yet had an opportunity to discuss. This is in the letter that we received from the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. By the way, they did an excellent job. They divided all the various problems or improvements they wanted to make by individual clause.
The letter reads as follows:Declarations of past political positions raise privacy concerns in that it requires the disclosure of personal information without any nexus or connection between this disclosure and their ability to perform their functions.
In doing this, we would really be asking everyone to make these disclosures public when this is not really necessary in such cases.
I previously outlined my concerns over the excessive scope of the provisions and mentioned that we should limit them, particularly clause 7, solely to individuals who have decision-making power. We have concerns about privacy, but also about the fact that this might undermine the ability of these individuals to make a request in future given that, in any case, they do not have decision-making power. That is the purpose of this amendment.
I do not know whether other people want to speak to this amendment. I would be pleased to hear their comments.