Evidence of meeting #82 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 internet.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
Are you serious with your question?
December 6th, 2017 / 4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
I'll tell you how they keep me grounded.
I've had demanding work. I've had a heavy workload during most of my career, and my children have kept me level-headed, kept me grounded. What we do is important work, but when I'm watching their soccer games and their hockey games, I'm with them. I'm trying not to think of work and letting it affect me. That's how they keep me grounded and sane.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
They keep me in the real world, yes.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Very good.
You mentioned that it's important that you maintain an independence from the government, and that allows you to speak impartially. Can you elaborate a bit on that?
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
Certainly. I will simply not be influenced by government action.
Since 2000, I have been a public servant but only worked with institutions that were independent of government; in other words, institutions that were reviewing the actions of government.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
Oh, absolutely.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
—in being attached, a part of the government, but apart from the government at the same time.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
Yes, they paid my salary, but my work has always been to ensure that the advice I gave and the way I performed my own duties, and the way I treated my staff and everything else, was impartial, not being influenced by the government of the day, by policies.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Your previous work, both in the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and then in the Information Commissioner's office was very similar types of work. They're both government institutions, but it's to kind of oversee the government. Being impartial and not being pulled in is critical.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
I would argue that they're not government institutions.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
The offices are clearly not government. It's just that the rules applying to employees are public servant rules.
Yes, my role was similar. In both situations, I was general counsel. In the Information Commissioner's office just last August, I was appointed deputy commissioner as well as public affairs. I had been working for the last two years being responsible for parliamentary relations, communications, and the commissioner sort of gave me the title of deputy commissioner.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
What would be some of the key things that you learned over that period? You've had a pretty strong career in this type of environment—I won't call it government, whatever you call it—this quasi-government environment.
What would be some of the key lessons that you learned that you're going to bring to this new position?
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
It's always treating people with respect, being fair, listening. There are a lot of opinions. There's a lot of advice.
You know, you have a fact situation, and everyone sees the situation differently. To leave your personal judgment aside and analyze it fairly, and always, always be aware, to me, that is important. These decisions that you make affect the reputations of people.
These are important positions, and they need to be done above board and always with the highest level of integrity and impartiality. That's really the key.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
It's a pretty powerful position and you have to respect that position.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
Yes, absolutely.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
You cannot abuse that power or get sucked into something.
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
No, you can't get sucked in. You have to have the courage not to be sucked in. You have to remain neutral and impartial. You listen to the advice, but at the end of the day the buck stops with you, and then you have to make sure you make the right decision.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
That leads me to another point that you brought up, which is about informing the public. They're not so informed about the role, and you said that would be one thing you'd look at doing.
How would you look to do that?
Nominee for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying, As an Individual
First of all, I need to understand exactly who the stakeholders are. Obviously, the parliamentarians are stakeholders, the lobbyists are stakeholders, and I don't know them. I will have to work with the office to see what kind of outreach they already have in place and how we can expand that. I will certainly make sure that I meet with them, that I listen and get their take on what's going right or not so right, and make sure that we promote the work of the office.
I think we need to be out there. I'm even thinking we need to be even at the university level. It's complicated legislation. There are a lot of things that they need to know about, and I don't know that, instinctively, they do, so we have to reach out to lobbyists. Canadians need to understand that lobbying is okay; it's a good thing. I find that every time we hear the word “lobbyist”, there's almost a negative connotation to it, which shouldn't be happening.
I'm going to try to work with experts in the field of communication and find a way to reach out and make sure they understand the role of the office.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Thank you, Mr. Baylis.
We started a little late so I'm going to let it go. We have two questioners left for five minutes each. Actually, it's five and three, so five minutes for Mr. Kent, and then Mr. Cullen.
Conservative
Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you for your clarity. I agree with Mr. Cullen's commendation on shedding a little light on the nomination process. I have one last question. You named the chair of the four-person screening committee.