Evidence of meeting #57 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 investigations.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Thank you for your kind remarks.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
I would also like to take this moment to introduce Madame Mona Fortier, who is new to our committee and new to the House of Commons.
Welcome to the committee.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
We're excited to have you here.
Madame Trudel, I believe you're going to be a member of this committee now, as we've had some changes. We are now no longer the only committee on Parliament Hill that consists only of men, and that is a good thing. Thank you very much.
Madam Commissioner, we wish you all the best as you continue. We know from past experiences that previous commissioners in various other areas are always called upon to give their advice and their opinions to this committee. While I don't think you'll be back in your current capacity, I have every feeling that you'll be back in your next capacity guiding this committee and our Parliament.
Thank you very much.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Thank you very much.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
I will now suspend for a few moments, and we'll proceed to the second hour.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
Colleagues, we're now going to resume our meeting.
Joining us today for the second hour of our committee, we are pleased to have, from the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, Madam Shepherd, the commissioner. With her is Mr. Charles Dutrisac.
Did I pronounce that correctly?
Charles Dutrisac Director of Finance and Acting Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
It's close enough.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
Charles will work, won't it?
He is the director of finance and acting chief financial officer.
We're very pleased to have you here, Commissioner. We'll allow you up to 10 minutes, give or take—whatever you need—for your opening comments and then we'll proceed to our rounds of questioning.
Thank you very much for being here. The floor is yours.
Karen Shepherd Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I'm pleased to be here today to discuss the main estimates and outline the priorities for the coming fiscal year. I'm joined by Charles Dutrisac, director of finance and acting chief financial officer.
My mandate has three components. The first is to maintain a registry of lobbyists. The second is to develop and implement educational programs to foster awareness of the Lobbying Act. The third is to ensure compliance with the act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct.
Overall, the 2017-18 main estimates for my office provide for about $4.4 million, which is essentially the same amount as last year. I have a complement of 28 full-time employees, and salaries continue to represent about two-thirds of my expenditures.
As I have previously said before this committee, I run a lean but effective organization. In past years I was able to streamline operations without compromising the effectiveness of my office and my ability to deliver on my mandate.
Some of the accomplishments I want to highlight for last year include an increased number of new registrations in the registry. This is partly the result of the Office of the Commissioner's outreach and education activities over the years. There are more registrations, and the registrations are disclosed on time.
Another achievement I am proud of is my office’s entry onto social media platforms. Using YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn is valuable for reaching out to more people.
Finally, three individuals were convicted in court this year of offences under the Lobbying Act, demonstrating that there are significant consequences to breaching the act. This brings the total to four individuals convicted under the Lobbying Act.
Looking to 2017-18, I am pleased to share our plans for this fiscal year. My focus continues to be on initiatives that offer value for money to Canadians and on improving the efficiency of our operations. I have chosen to expand the use of technology to improve services and enhance transparency in a cost-effective manner.
The first program I want to talk about is the registry of lobbyists. The registry is the primary source of information on who is lobbying federal public office holders and the topics addressed. A team develops and maintains the online registry. A dedicated team also provides guidance and advice to support registrants. I've allocated seven full-time employees and about one million dollars to this program.
One of the priorities this year is to improve the accessibility and usability of the registry of lobbyists and my website. This year we will lay the groundwork to make both work better on cell phones and tablets. Part of the website renewal includes a content review and incorporating more plain language into the site. New features will be added to the registry, including better search functions.
Reaching out to lobbyists, public office holders, and other stakeholders to educate them about the requirements of the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct is an important component of the work conducted by my office. I believe individuals are more apt to comply with the act and the code when they understand their obligations. As public officer holders are the targets of lobbying, the program also provides outreach to them to ensure that they are aware of the lobbying regime and their obligations.
My staff and I conduct a wide range of outreach and education activities, including group presentations, individual meetings, and webinars for new registrants. These online presentations are a cost-effective method to reach people, particularly when they are located outside of Ottawa.
I also publish interpretation bulletins on the act and guidance on the code on my website in order to provide clarification to stakeholders. I continue to look for ways to make outreach and education activities more effective. The evaluation of my outreach and education program is under way and should be completed by the summer. This evaluation may offer new ideas and avenues for improvement.
One tool that I improved is the website. As I mentioned earlier, I'm laying the ground work to update and renew our website, incorporate more plain language, improve the accessibility and usability of the site, and incite greater compliance.
A budget of about $900,000, including salaries for seven full-time equivalent employees, has been allocated to the outreach and education program.
The third component of my mandate is to ensure compliance with the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. My team conducts administrative reviews and investigations into suspected or alleged breaches of the act or the code. Suspected breaches may be identified internally through the review of media reports and other public sources of information. Allegations may also come from complaints I receive from external sources.
I take all allegations seriously and will initiate an administrative review to find out more about suspected breaches. When an allegation is founded, I decide on the appropriate compliance measure, including whether a formal investigation is necessary. Since becoming commissioner, I have initiated 173 administration reviews, have tabled 10 reports on investigation in Parliament, and have referred 14 cases to the RCMP.
My office also reviews requests for exemptions from the five-year post-employment prohibition on lobbying. I grant exemptions when doing so would not be contrary to the purposes of the act. Since the coming into force of the act in 2008, my office has completed 79 exemption reviews, and I have granted 38.
My investigations directorate continues to leverage technology to improve compliance monitoring and verification activities. This coming year, we will roll out a new automated system to verify the accuracy of monthly communications reports. Designated public office holders will be able to review selected monthly communication reports quickly by confirming their accuracy directly in a web browser.
A budget of about $1.1 million, including salaries for eight full-time employees, has been allocated to manage the compliance and enforcement program.
Finally, a range of internal services support the programs I've just described and enable me to meet my corporate obligations.
A budget of about $1.4 million has been allocated to internal services. This amount includes the salaries for six full-time employees. It also covers the cost of agreements I have with other organizations to provide services, such as staffing and other human resource services, financial management, and support for the information technology infrastructure.
Approximately two-thirds of the operating budget allocated to internal services is spent to acquire services from other government institutions. This approach has been adopted by most small organizations, because it provides access to a broad set of expertise in a cost-effective and timely manner. It also allows me to meet my accountabilities as deputy head under the Financial Administration Act.
In 2017-18 my office will continue to strengthen its management accountability framework. My office will also continue to collaborate with counterparts and other agents of Parliament.
In 2016 the office expanded its service agreement with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner with respect to hosting IT services. The office will implement its IM/IT strategy to streamline internal operations and procedures and support more efficient and effective delivery of my mandate. This will help to establish a strategy to improve business intelligence opportunities and support reviews and investigations through a better integration of the case management system with other office activities and applications.
I would like to conclude my remarks by confirming that I am able to meet the demands of my mandate with my current funding. I do this by making the appropriate trade-offs to deliver on my mandate effectively and efficiently.
This may become more difficult to do in the near future. Over the years there are fewer discretionary funds available. Increased pressures, such as demands by government departments to contribute to central services, the relocation of the office scheduled for 2019, or changes to the act following a legislative review could impact my office's ability to deliver on its mandate.
My seven-year term ended in June 2016, but I've been commissioner for almost nine years. My appointment has been extended twice, until June 2017, to allow for the selection of a new commissioner.
I am proud of all that I have accomplished. I have built a strong team of professionals that is committed to upholding the Lobbying Act. My accomplishments have only been possible thanks to their dedication and professionalism.
Mr. Chair, I welcome any questions you or the committee members may have.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blaine Calkins
Thank you, Ms. Shepherd. We appreciate your opening remarks.
We'll now move to our seven-minute round.
We'll start with Mr. Saini, please, for up to seven minutes.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Good afternoon, Commissioner Shepherd. Thank you very much for coming here today and for your nine years of service.
One of the things you've written about in your departmental plan is about how you want to incorporate more technology into day-to-day operations. Could you give us some examples of how you want to do this? What will be the effect of doing this on the shorter-term and longer-term finances?
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
One thing, given where we stand now, because we're running a lean and efficient organization, is using the technology as well as we can to improve things. For example, in the case of the registry, which is our main tool, and the website, the work now is to make them more mobile-friendly. On the registry side, the wealth of information in the registry is great, but we have continued over the years to make improvements to the search function. This year we're looking at putting in a thesaurus so that the search function is better.
As I was saying in my opening remarks, we're looking at better integrating the case management system with other activities in the organization, because that will help with the business intelligence on the compliance side and some of the preventive measures we are doing. We're looking at the cost of doing all of that.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Staying with the departmental plan, one of the benchmarks you haven't reached yet is the exemption review for office holders.
I think you wanted to make sure you dealt with all the case files within 60 days. Is that true?
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
There seems to be a bit of a difference. It's not a large difference, but could you give us some hard numbers, so that we know exactly how many reviews you are doing?
How many reviews are you doing in a year?
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
It's about 40 to 50, if I include the administrative reviews, investigations, and the exemptions.
I think there was just one case in which we didn't make the 60-day goal, and it was actually over the Christmas holidays when we missed the day of getting it out. That's what it worked out to.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Okay.
The other thing I noticed in the expenditures was that from year to year there has been a reduction in the amount of money you are spending on registering lobbyists. Obviously you're either saving money or you're not spending money. Can you tell me why the cost of this aspect of your mandate, actually registering the lobbyists, is going down?
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
The money allocated to each of the programs varies. What happens in any given year depends on the priorities. If there is money for development going into the registration system or the case management system, it would affect cost, but the money that's been going in has largely been the same.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
In a point that you made on the departmental plan in your opening comments, you said that you had expanded some of your service agreements with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Why was that?
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
When we moved the registry over, we were looking at cost efficiencies. In looking also at IT security with the Privacy Commissioner, moving the registry over worked really well; it was quite successful. It's a very good, protected environment. Wanting to have more control over it and to be in a better-protected environment is the reason we decided to move all of our IT services over. It's been a very good arrangement.
Conservative
Liberal
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
I can slow down.
