Information & Ethics Committee on May 10th, 2016

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

Thank you. That does it.

Colleagues, I just want to remind you that we have a few minutes left to get to one more question from Mr. Jeneroux for five minutes. It will take us about two minutes to get through the votes, as long as there are no issues with reductions of budgets or anything like that, which, I'm sure, is going to be of great comfort to the commissioners.

I have to advise you, colleagues, that there is a time allocation motion before the House, and we're expecting bells at about the time we would adjourn. I'm seeking requests from you that, if we need to, we could take a few more minutes. I don't think there's anybody here with any issues on getting to the House in 25 minutes instead of 30, so if it's okay with you, we'll just continue on through the bells, if we need to, to make sure we have the time.

Is that okay? Does everybody agree with that?

Okay. We'll go to Mr. Jeneroux, then, for up to five minutes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No pressure and fewer questions, whether or not your budget is approved.

I do again want to thank you guys for coming and your staff for preparing for today, as well.

Ms. Legault, you've been a popular name around the table here in the last few months, as you can imagine. We'll start with you.

Thank you for providing the organizational chart. That helps a lot.

I want to return to the line of questioning my colleague, Mr. Long, started in terms of the cost savings in certain aspects. It touched on some of the material savings in terms of the building, security, IT, and that sort of thing. My apologies if any communications people who are in the room are on the phones, but when I look at the chart, there are three communications people. There appear to be two and an assistant public affairs person, along with a director position.

Are these things that have been talked about in terms of cost savings and moving together with other agencies on some of these initiatives? A lot of the departments are now doing a number of the shared services model, and I was wondering if you guys have dived down a bit more into some of that.

[Suzanne Legault]

We use shared services quite a bit, as Madame Michaud has explained.

With respect to communications, should the will of Parliament be to join the two offices, I think there would be efficiencies gained in the communications of both the Privacy Commissioner and the Information Commissioner.

As it stands now—and I say this with a very firm conviction—I cannot cut these corporate services any more than I have cut them. People who work in internal services in my office work, seriously, umpteen times compared with what they would be experiencing in any other government institution. I am extremely thankful that they are staying with my office, because we are understaffed in all of those services.

We have an up-to-date Internet page for communications. Posting on the Internet has to be done in both official languages. It has to be verified. It also has to be managed for accessibility. We have to code it for accessibility. I think it's unrealistic not to have a Twitter account in this day and age, and not to follow what's going on in the media. This is in part what these communications officers do.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I'm not suggesting that we cut those people in those positions. The examples you've used aren't necessarily unique to your agency. Everybody needs accessibility, everyone needs a second language, everyone needs a Twitter feed in this day and age. It sounds like you're firm, that you need those positions, so I appreciate your answer.

Ms. Shepherd, in your annual report, people described as a “representative for a registered lobbyist” seem to account for most of your calls. These are inquiries into whether or not people can be lobbyists or if certain things are approved or not.

Could you highlight who these representatives might be? Is there an efficient public outreach to these groups? Just because they have a different lobbyist doesn't mean they need a run-through of the rules again. Is it because of a lack of public education that they don't know what the rules are?

[Karen Shepherd]

Some of the consulting firms have representatives who are doing the lobbying for them, so when rules change or they have a new client, they have to verify the information. There have been a number of calls because of the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct.

We've been doing a lot of outreach to those groups. For new registrants or new lobbyists who are registering, we do webinars. We've done an online video that we put on YouTube to help people decide whether they need to register. We're looking at developing more of these types of tools.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

In a lot of cases, they're the same consulting firms, are they not? I wouldn't imagine they're different consulting firms just because a new lobbyist has come on board.

[Karen Shepherd]

It's not a static group, so people are coming in and out all the time. If you want, I can look a bit more into some of these questions, but we have 8,000 lobbyists going in and out at any one time.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I wish we had more time, but I guess we don't.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

I'm sorry, Mr. Jeneroux. That the five minutes is up and we have other pressing matters.

I want to thank the commissioners and your staff for coming today. I bid you continued good work on behalf of Parliament and on behalf of Canadians.

Colleagues, we're going to turn our attention immediately to the votes on the estimates, understanding that the process that we're doing right now is to approve the budget, from the committee's perspective, less the amount of money that's already been approved under interim supply. The money that we've already been operating under has already been approved.

I do not expect it, but if anybody wants to, let me know. Will there be anybody who's going to move a motion to reduce any of the budgets for the commissioners?

No. That makes this process a lot simpler, then.

Shall I just proceed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LOBBYING

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

(Vote 1 agreed to)

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..........$22,036,920

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to)

SENATE ETHICS OFFICER

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

(Vote 1 agreed to)

Shall the chair report the main estimates 2015-16, less the amounts voted in interim supply, to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

That was excellent.

Colleagues, I remind you we resume our study on Thursday with the access to information legislative review.

We'll see you Thursday morning.

Thank you very much. This meeting's adjourned.