Evidence of meeting #11 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was year.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have on-site a number of functions that will include, for example, staff for health and safety, staff who will handle the day-to-day administration, facilities, management, and things of this sort.
Conservative
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Thank you. I knew I was missing one.
We have about $1 million for the human resource budget.
One of the things that we do, again, is we centralize the training budget within the organization, which again shows up in internal services, but it would probably be better reflected within the programs. Everybody has a small amount of money, about $1,500 per person, for training for any given year.
That accounts for about $7 million.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
That's close. In the estimates, your mains for 2015-16 were only about $5.7 million, and your mains for 2016-17 are $7.3 million, so we're close.
I've just got a question for you on HR. What's your ratio of employees to HR staff, do you know?
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have about nine staff within the HR unit for about 185—
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Two hundred now.
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes, so about 5% of our staff is HR.
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It's 20:1.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
It's 20:1. You're aware that the private sector does that at about 50:1, right?
Director General and Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Again, it's a small organization, and there are a number of oversight functions. Some of the staff is dedicated to just reporting to central agencies on a number of our performance items during the year, so we have to consider that. We have a staff that looks after pay as well. We still have pay within our office. Some others have pay that's handled centrally by Miramichi. Once you account for all these things, I think that brings the ratio a little closer to what the private sector may have.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
You're rightly focusing on internal services. I can tell you that I have also focused quite a bit of questioning on internal services myself.
I would say two or three things. One, remember we're a small organization. In terms of IMIT, which is a big part of the internal services budget, about $3 million, one may ask if there would be efficiencies with Shared Services. We have had some conversations with them, and all of these conversations have led both parties to think that there would be no savings from that perspective.
We have referred a number of times this morning to the external audit committee. If you want to pursue the question of possible savings and whether we're doing all the right internal services, I would encourage you to speak to the external audit committee independent advisers on financial management within the OPC.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
All right, I appreciate that. That's good advice.
I have a few more things that I want to get off my chest.
I'll just leave with the one quote that I've left many different times. I'm sure you all know who Oscar Wilde is, and one of my favourite quotes of all time is, “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy”. It sounds to me like the Shared Services and the internal services are doing as well as can be expected. I'm hoping that we can find that.
Mr. Blaikie, I'll get to you before we go. I think you have one more question.
One thing I'll leave you with, and one thing that I can't believe didn't come up in this committee, is that we've been hearing from virtually every province that they have actually a dual role between the privacy commissioner and the information commissioner. When we take a look at the fact that your budget is rolled in with the Information Commissioner's and we have internal services for both organizations and so on, we've never had that conversation. I know it probably isn't a comfortable conversation, but I know it's probably one that's going to come up at some point in time as a conversation. I have no idea what the government of the day is going to do on that, but it would have nice to have some time to pursue that.
Mr. Commissioner, we thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Nadeau and Madam Kosseim, for coming again today.
We are going to have a discussion later on today about resuming the privacy study, I think, as we go through some of the scheduling. I know that you've made yourself available to come in. I'll share that information with the committee. We look forward to resuming that very important piece of work.
We thank you for your time, sir.
We're going to suspend for a few minutes and then we'll bring the Ethics Commissioner forward. Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
Colleagues, let's resume. We have about another 50 minutes, if we can.
We're glad to have the Ethics Commissioner here.
Ms. Dawson, we appreciate your being available to talk about the main estimates. We look forward to your opening remarks. Please introduce the colleagues you have with you here.
If we could wrap up at about a quarter to the hour, we should be able to do the little bit of committee business that we need to deal with in the time remaining. We look forward to going over the estimates with you.
Again, welcome to the committee.
Mary Dawson Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today as the committee considers my office's budgetary submission for the 2016-17 main estimates.
With me today is Lyne Robinson-Dalpé, director of advisory and compliance, and Denise Benoit, director of corporate management.
When I appeared before you last February, I reviewed the mandate and activities of my office and our interactions with the committee. Today I will briefly describe my office's organization and operations, and the accountability framework within which it operates, before discussing our current budgetary requirements and highlighting some of our activities in the past year.
I've organized my office into five divisions to best support my mandate to administer the act for public office holders and the code for members of the House of Commons.
Advisory and compliance is the largest division, reflecting my primary goal of helping members and public officer holders meet their obligations through education and guidance. This division provides confidential advice to public office holders and members, reviews their confidential reports, maintains internal records of that information, and administers a system of public disclosure. In 2015-16 our advisory and compliance staff had close to 4,000 communications with members and public office holders.
The communications, planning, and outreach division coordinates education and outreach activities. It also contributes to policy development, compiles research, conducts public communications and media relations, and coordinates my office's interactions with Parliament and external organizations. Although the major focus of my office is on the prevention of conflicts of interest, we also investigate possible contraventions of the act and the members' code.
The investigations division has a leading role in this area. In 2015-16 my office dealt with 36 investigation files. I initiated most of those files myself, many on the basis of communications from the general public.
The legal services division also plays a critical role in our examinations and inquiries, and provides strategic legal advice on all facets of the work of the office.
The corporate management division oversees the development and implementation of internal management policies and the delivery of services and advice on human resources, finance, information technology, information management, and the management of office facilities. It also administers our shared services agreements.
Finally, my own team in the commissioner's office provides general administrative and logistical support for the office. The number of staff provisions in my office totals 49 across all divisions. Two vacant positions remain. My office is an entity of Parliament, and is therefore not generally subject to legislation governing the administration of the public service or to Treasury Board policies and guidelines. I've ensured, however, that our resource management practices are informed by the principles followed in the public service and in Parliament. Those principles are reflected in an internal management framework that I will discuss in a few moments.
In order to provide some context for my current budgetary submission, I note that after its first year of operation, my office was allocated an annual operating budget of $7.1 million. That remained unchanged for five years. We have returned some funds to the federal Treasury at the end of each year. Those surpluses have resulted, in part, from such cost-saving practices as not always staffing vacant positions immediately, and maintaining a budgeted reserve. I maintain a reserve to cover unexpected operational pressures and to internally fund projects and initiatives that lead to greater efficiencies.
There were lapsed funds again in 2015-16, mainly because certain positions were vacant for a period of time and because there were no major projects that needed to be funded from the reserve. I was able to proactively offer an overall budget reduction of 1.4% in 2013-14, and the same in 2014-15, when a budget of $6.94 million was approved for my office.
Last year, I sought and received a slight upward adjustment of $6.95 million to cover an increase in contributions to the employee benefit plans as determined by the Treasury Board.
For 2016-17, I am seeking a budget of $6.97 million. Again, the slight variance compared to last year is directly due to an increase in contributions to the employee benefit plans. This amount will enable me to continue to fulfill my mandate and further strengthen the effectiveness of my office by implementing strategic priorities in key areas such as client service, outreach, and information management.
I have again budgeted a reserve, but a smaller one than last year. In 2016-17, my office could be asked to help to pay for the implementation of a new financial system, and this project would be funded from the reserve.
Given the nature of my mandate, salaries are by far the largest expenditure. Non-salary expenditures are mostly related to the standard costs of running an office and the costs of our shared services agreements with external partners. Through such agreements, we benefit from the expertise of the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament, and Public Services and Procurement Canada in various areas, resulting in greater efficiency.
In 2015-16, my office continued to strengthen the internal management framework that helps to ensure the effective, efficient, and economical use of public resources. Among other measures, we implemented a policy on internal control and a directive on account verification.
We also continued to follow good management practices in other areas of our operations, including information management and information technology. We implemented an internal policy on information management and a related guide. Working with the House of Commons IT team, we launched an online portal for reporting public office holders and members of the House of Commons to submit their public declarations electronically.
Although we're not bound by Treasury Board policies on performance measurement, as a good governance practice we have developed a performance measurement framework that we are now starting to implement.
We continue to be transparent. We publish detailed financial information on our website, and our annual financial statements are audited by an independent auditor.
The workload of my office increased significantly as a result of last fall's federal election, which resulted in a large turnover of ministers, parliamentary secretaries, ministerial staff, and members of the House of Commons.
We communicated with departing reporting public office holders about their post-employment obligations under the act and worked with incoming reporting public office holders and members to help them complete the initial compliance process under the act and the members' code. Just over a third of the members have completed this process. All new ministers and parliamentary secretaries have completed the process within the timeline set out in the act, and we are processing the ministerial staff as they continue to be appointed.
My office participated in the members' orientation program, the House of Commons service fair, and a Library of Parliament seminar. I also offered presentations to all caucuses in the House of Commons and made presentations to the Liberal and Conservative caucuses.
I have touched on some of the activities and initiatives undertaken by my office in the last fiscal year. Later this spring, I will release my annual reports under the Conflict of Interest Act and the members' code, which will provide detailed information about these activities and initiatives. I will be pleased to discuss my annual report under the act with the committee, if it so wishes.
In closing, I wish to thank the committee again for inviting me to discuss my office's budgetary submission for 2016-17.
I will now be pleased to answer your questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
Thank you very much, Madam Commissioner. We appreciate that. I'm sure you'll get some very good questions.
Mr. Erskine-Smith, please, for up to seven minutes.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much.
On your request for around $7 million, perhaps we can just walk through where that $7 million would go and if there are any differences over the previous year. Could you give us a sense, line by line, of where the $7 million will be allocated?
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Thank you very much. I will ask my corporate manager, Denise Benoit, to do that.
Denise Benoit Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Our biggest expenditure is salary. So $4.6 million, plus the equivalent employee benefits plan, goes for salaries, which leaves the office with $1.6 million for non-salary expenditures. Most of the non-salary is spent on covering the cost of shared services agreements. We have, as the commissioner mentioned, one with the House of Commons for IT; we have one with the Library of Parliament for payments and external reporting; and we also get our compensation services from Public Works. That, in total, comes out to almost $600,000. Then the other major expenditures would be professional services where we go and seek them, whether it's for our security or classification services. Whenever there is a specific expertise that is required and we go outside, that's where we spend for professional services. Of course, there are the standard expenditures of running an office. It's definitely not travel. We only spent, I think, $6,000 in travel over the last year. It's more, as I said, whether it's telecommunications or just the standard supplies, the standard expenditures for an office.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
The $4.6 million in salary, how many individuals are employed?
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
We have 49 positions of whom six are executives and the rest are staff.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
In your view, is that enough staff, not enough staff, too many staff?