Information & Ethics Committee on Feb. 19th, 2019

Evidence of meeting #136 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 services.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Privacy of Digital Government Services
Committee Business

MPs speaking

Bob Zimmer
Raj Saini
Peter Kent
Charlie Angus
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith
Jacques Gourde
Anita Vandenbeld
Mona Fortier

Also speaking

Alex Benay  Chief Information Officer of the Government of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
Aaron Snow  Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Digital Service, Treasury Board Secretariat
John O'Brien  Director, Security and Engineering Reliability, Canadian Digital Service, Treasury Board Secretariat
Ruth Naylor  Executive Director, Information and Privacy Policy Division, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat

5:15 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Otherwise, by the time they finish with their witnesses list, the next election will be over, and meanwhile, our report is sitting on a shelf.

5:15 p.m.

Liberal

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON

By all means, send the chair a copy of the report.

5:15 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

I've been in Parliament too many years to see parliamentary reports. People love them the day they come out, and the only people who remember them the day after are the committees that did them. Nobody pays attention. I'm going to fight for this one.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer

I'll write the letter and send it.

I will raise one last thing. The International Grand Committee has been proceeding. We're going to do a press release, I believe tomorrow.

I thought it was clear already, but I've been asked by our current clerk as well about doing releases and giving permission as chair to do the release. Is that still the case? I thought we already approved that.

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON

We're good to go.

5:20 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

I find the statements in the U.K. report to be devastating. I think we really have to be focused on Facebook when we talk. If they were referring to Facebook as international “digital gangsters”, our committee needs to be—

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON

When I read that, I thought—

5:20 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Like, why didn't we come up with that?

5:20 p.m.

Liberal

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON

—this has Charlie all over it.

5:20 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Yes, I know. Goddamn Brits.

I think we have to be talking about what the international community does in response to the report. The U.K. committee should give us their report and we should be talking internationally about what steps we need to take.

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer

Yes. They released it on Monday, I believe, and I challenge all of us here to read it. There is an acknowledgement of our presence there too, on the International Grand Committee. That's a nice tip of the hat to us.

Thank you.

Thank you again to the presenters for coming. We have a lot of information and a lot of stuff to deal with. Have a great day.

The meeting is adjourned.