Yes.
Evidence of meeting #149 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 video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #149 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 video is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
That's important to know.
I have no other questions. Thank you very much.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Thank you.
I think I'll go to Mr. Erskine-Smith because he had one question, and then I'll go to Charlie to finish.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I'm going to pass my time over to Frank, but before I do, I just want to...while we're all here and without going into camera just yet. Previously in December, we had a meeting when the lawyer for Ontario Proud had come before us. We obviously have been caught up with holding Facebook and Google accountable and large social media platforms, and rightly so, but I don't want to lose the thread entirely.
I would ask that you follow up. There were certain undertakings that I believe Mr. O'Connor gave to this committee. I ask that you, as chair, follow up in writing to ensure that Mr. O'Connor and Ontario Proud take our committee and those requests seriously, specifically whether an undertaking was made. I'd be interested in a request to understand the name of the undisclosed vendor. That's my interest.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Is it the will of the committee to follow through with the request from Mr. Erskine-Smith?
Yes, we can do this.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Go ahead, Frank. You have about a minute and a half left over from that time, and counting.
May 14th, 2019 / 4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Okay, is it still the case that the IRCC is representing more than half of your requests?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Sure.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
When I look at this 2,500 complaints, how many of those are—
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Sorry to interrupt you.
We still have 15 minutes. If you want to go ahead and then we'll finish with Charlie, we still have time to do those two last questions.
Go ahead for five minutes.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Thank you. I'll keep talking then. I'll talk slower.
Is IRCC still representing more than 50% of your requests?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It represents 50% of the requests in terms of the requests for access to information, government-wise but not 50% of my complaints, I don't believe.
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It's 50% of the requests for access to information
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Are we taking any action to deal with that? It seems to me that this is weighing down your whole operation—people just wanting to know where their refugee claim or their immigration is. It seems to me it's not the right avenue to use access to information to get that.
Are you looking at changing that, adapting it?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I'm dealing with the complaints only, but the access requests are being governed by Treasury Board. I understand that they are looking at tools to help IRCC respond to these requests through other mechanisms than access requests.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Yes. I'm just doing the complaints.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
If we start off with, say.... Let's just simplify it. It's a bit more than 50%. Let's say that 50% of the requests are IRCC, which really shouldn't be access to information, in my opinion.
How many of the 2,500 complaints are...? Is it 50% too?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
No. They're doing really well. IRCC is actually.... As you mentioned, the requests are very simple. They have a process in place and they are dealing with them. It's on almost an automatic basis. The only thing is that it's a huge volume.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I understand.
I just grabbed the numbers here. I think 2016-17 are the last ones we had. About 90,000 requests and 48,000 were theirs. Where are these complaints coming from, the 2,500?
Is it spread across all of the complaints, or are there one or two problematic areas that need to be addressed?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I believe their access requests are all dealt with at one office here in Ottawa.
Layla just told me that we got 500 complaints last year from the IRCC. So they're dealing with about 55,000 requests a year and I received 500 complaints.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Out of the 2,500, already we can take off 20%, 500. Is my understanding correct?
4:15 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It's 500 of the 2,500 complaints last year.