Information & Ethics Committee on May 25th, 2015

[Daniel Therrien]

As far as private businesses go, we have held some consultations with telecommunications companies. I would say that the overall response has been rather positive. Most of the companies are willing to release that information, within certain parameters, of course. I think there is some room for improvement in that sense.

As for requiring government departments to do the same, as I explained in my opening remarks, I intend to ask departments to follow the same rules, in alignment with my office's priorities. Of course, departments and state police forces ultimately receive that information. It would be at least as important for departments to also be transparent, just like private sector companies are.

I plan on asking government departments to do the same.

[Charmaine Borg, NDP, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

That's great. We are looking forward to it. I think Canadians are also looking forward to seeing a bit more transparency around requests for sharing personal information.

In response to Mr. Simms' questions, budgetary constraints were briefly discussed. Your office will eventually have to deal with the implementation of Bill C-51. There is also Bill S-4, whereby your advisory role with companies will increase. Under the legislation, companies are also asked to report privacy breaches to you.

I understand that you are not asking for additional resources today, but that you will eventually. What are your concerns should you fail to obtain more resources?

[Daniel Therrien]

When the budget remains the same and we are given new responsibilities, such as those we will have to assume in the coming months under Bills S-4 and C-51, a choice clearly must be made. My concern is that we will have to do less in other areas.

I have a specific example. If we were to prioritize monitoring the implementation of Bill C-51 by carrying out investigations and providing government departments with advice, we would have fewer employees available to provide similar advice on immigration, border control and other issues. Some government initiatives would receive less attention because we would have to prioritize Bill C-51.

I would like to be able to do both, as both are important. We will try to do our best with the resources we have and given our new responsibilities. It is certainly possible that we might neglect some other obligations in practice, so we would have to request additional resources to manage to do both.

[Charmaine Borg, NDP, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you.

Regarding budgetary problems, Ms. Shepherd, you also said that you have lost 8% of your budget since 2011, if my information is correct. You explained that it was becoming difficult to balance your activities. Can you tell us more about that?

[Karen Shepherd]

Our budget was cut by 5%, not 8%. To continue to deliver on my mandate, I have placed the registry in maintenance mode, but, as I said, that situation is not sustainable in the long term. So I am trying to see what I can do to ensure the system's long-term sustainability.

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

Thank you, Ms. Borg. You are out of time. I have to use the remaining five minutes to call the votes we have been discussing over the past two hours.

I thank the witnesses for being here. They can stay for their votes if they wish. If not, they are free to leave.

I will call the votes now.

OFFICE OF THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND ETHICS COMMISSIONER

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$6,178,280

(Vote 1 agreed to)

OFFICES OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONERS OF CANADA

Vote 1—Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada - Program expenditures..........$9,927,361

Vote 5—Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada - Program expenditures..........$21,908,457

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LOBBYING

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$4,026,414

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

SENATE ETHICS OFFICER

Vote 1—Program expenditures.......... $1,059,500

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

Shall the chair report to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

The chair will report to the House at the earliest opportunity.

This concludes our 37th meeting. I thank the committee members for being here and for their excellent questions. I also want to thank the witnesses who came to testify.

The meeting is adjourned.