Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Robert Mundie. I'm the director general of the corporate secretariat at the Canada Border Services Agency. I am also the chief privacy officer for CBSA. I have with me Mr. Dan Proulx, who is the director of our ATIP division.
The ATIP division is responsible for oversight of the privacy function at the agency, which includes administering and fulfilling all legislative requirements of the Privacy Act related to the processing of requests; interacting with the public, CBSA employees, other government institutions, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner regarding investigations and audits; and implementing measures to enhance our capacity to process privacy requests.
I will briefly outline the CBSA's privacy function and the way the agency performs against established service standards, and I'll highlight some of the successes and challenges we experience in our administration of the act.
The Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for border functions related to customs; the enforcement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; and food, plant and animal inspection.
The agency administers and enforces two principal pieces of legislation. First, the Customs Act outlines the agency's responsibilities to collect duties and taxes on imported goods, interdict illegal goods, and administer trade legislation and agreements. Second, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act governs both the admissibility of people into Canada, and the identification, detention and removal of those deemed to be inadmissible under the act.
The agency also enforces over 90 other statutes on behalf of other federal government departments and agencies.
Mr. Chair, given the numerous daily interactions that the agency has with businesses and with individuals on a variety of matters, we are no strangers to privacy requests. Approximately 60 employees work in the ATIP division, 34 of whom are dedicated to the processing of privacy and access to information requests. The division also has an internal network. It works with 16 liaison officers who provide support across the agency's branches at headquarters and in the regions in fulfillment of access and privacy requests.
The CBSA's operating expenditures to run its program for privacy and access totalled approximately $5.4 million in the previous fiscal year, with $4.4 million dedicated to salary and $1 million to non-salary expenditures. This amount includes the costs of administering both the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, as work on both acts is done concurrently.
With respect to volumes, the CBSA received just over 11,200 requests in the previous fiscal year, 2015-16, the second-highest number within the Government of Canada. In addition to these, the agency received approximately 5,500 access to information requests.
The high volumes are largely attributable to individuals seeking copies of their history of arrival dates into Canada. In 2015-16, 78% of all the requests that came to the CBSA were from individuals seeking their traveller history report, which is used to support residency requirements for programs administered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and by Employment and Social Development Canada. Of all the requests completed, the CBSA was successful in responding to 88.7% of them within the legislated timelines in the previous fiscal year.
ATI analysts in case-processing units have direct access to the database that houses the traveller history reports, and the review of these reports and the application of law are relatively standard, which allows them to complete these requests without needing to obtain recommendations on disclosure from departmental officials. This greatly reduces the time it takes analysts to process these types of requests.
As indicated in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s 2015-16 annual report to Parliament, 88 complaints were filed against the CBSA to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Given the large volume of requests the agency processes, this number is a very small proportion of the total requests closed.
However, we always aspire to better serve the requesters. Our successes reflect the agency’s commitment to ensuring that every reasonable effort is made to meet obligations under the Privacy Act.
The CBSA strives to provide Canadians with the information to which they have a right in a timely and helpful manner, by balancing the right of access with the need to protect the integrity of border services that support national security and public safety. We take our responsibilities under the Privacy Act very seriously.
In closing, we welcome the review of the Privacy Act, and will fully support and adopt any measures that are introduced by the Treasury Board Secretariat in response to changes made to the act.
I want to thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to provide our input into your study, and for welcoming us here today. I look forward to questions members of the committee may have.