Evidence of meeting #80 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 office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Michel Picard Liberal Montarville, QC
So the lapsed funding is the funding not spent because of departures and the long delays to replace people.
Layla Michaud
Exactly. That's the main reason why we have not spent that money. It's not because projects have not been completed or because of reasons like that.
Some things are also more difficult to foresee. For instance, if a pending case is settled at the end of the fiscal year, and we set aside $100,000 for it at the beginning of the fiscal year, most of that amount will not be spent.
Liberal
Michel Picard Liberal Montarville, QC
So the lapsed money is because of the cash flow. It is not unspent funding that could have been used to hire people to process other files.
Layla Michaud
It's a bit of both. If I understood your question correctly, most of the unspent money is because of wages that we did not have to pay.
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much.
You intimated, I think, a bit of an answer with respect to MP Kent's line of questioning, but I just had a question on the $3.4 million that was provided last year. It resolved 2,245 complaints, which is about $1,514 per complaint. You then suggested that $1.8 million will resolve 1,900 complaints, but there's no breakdown for us to see why there's such a differential between the $1,514 per complaint and the approximately $947.
Is the answer the same one that you gave to MP Kent, that it's the different complaints that you're analyzing?
Layla Michaud
Yes. They're different complaints, different types of complaints, but with the $1.8 million, we think our consultants will be able to close around 600 complaints. Then, with our A-base, with the people who are in place now, who are doing investigations, our objective is to close around 1,300 complaints, for a total of 1,900 with the $1.8 million.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Frankly, when you're coming in and asking for $1.8 million, it would be better to break it down, I would suggest, in a much more detailed way, first by suggesting what the $1.8 million is actually to resolve. The 1,900 is actually $1.8 million plus the resources you're already receiving, so it's not that helpful for us. You also ought to break down what types of complaints you have to resolve.
The other comment I would make is that resolving complaints is one question, but there's been a massive increase in access requests and therefore an accompanying increase in complaints. There's no knowledge that we would have, based on the information that you've provided, as to whether or not the complaints are founded, which is also useful information for this committee in order to understand trends, to understand whether these are real problems that are in the regime. As you've indicated, it's not journalists now. It's individual Canadians, and whether or not these individual complaints are founded is I think also an important question for us.
I mean, feel free to comment, but I just don't think you've provided enough information when we're talking about spending $1.8 million.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Thanks. That's time.
We'll move on to the next round, for five minutes, with Mr. Gourde.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks for joining us.
Along the same lines, could you tell me whether the amount of $1.8 million for the 14 consultants covers a one-year period?
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
Will the consultants be self-employed or on payroll?
Layla Michaud
They are not salaried employees.
Actually, consultants can be hired in a number of ways in the government. In terms of access to information, we hire them through a mechanism implemented by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), formerly Public Works. So we make a request through that system; we then conduct interviews and finally do the hiring.
The amount of $1.8 million we receive will help us hire them until March 31 of the next fiscal year.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
You are talking about the next fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.
Layla Michaud
No, I'm sorry, it's the current fiscal year 2017-18. They will be hired until March 31, 2018.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
The amount of $1.8 million will basically cover four months only.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Excuse me for a second. It's awfully noisy on this particular side, and we're having difficulty hearing the witness and the questioner.
Go ahead.
Layla Michaud
That's how the parliamentary process works. We made the request for the $1.8 million under budget 2017.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
I understand that, but could you tell me whether the 1,900 complaints that will be resolved involve the Office of the Information Commissioner as a whole for the entire year?
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lévis—Lotbinière, QC
The 1,900 complaints are not in addition to the ones that have already been resolved.