Information & Ethics Committee on May 14th, 2021

[Caroline Maynard]

In government, as I said earlier, it takes people, ministers and leaders who believe in the importance of transparency, even with respect to information management. It takes people who take risks and give information voluntarily. Better information management would also be helpful.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

You are absolutely right. In the end, transparency and truth are always beneficial. It is so much easier to guide people when you have the right information in the first place. In my office, we can better advise people when we have the complete information.

Thank you very much for the work you are doing. Keep up the good work.

[Caroline Maynard]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Monsieur Gourde.

We're going to turn now to Ms. Lattanzio for the next five minutes.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and thank you, Commissioner Maynard, for being with us today.

Through Bill C-58, passed during the previous Parliament, the Information Commissioner was given unprecedented new responsibilities and authorities, including the power to order institutions to release records at the end of an investigation when the commissioner found that the complaint was well founded. The commissioner now is also able to issue such orders on new complaints that cannot satisfactorily be resolved through informal resolution mechanisms that you also have in place.

Can you tell us how this is helpful to you and how it has improved your work and maybe even helped with the issue of delays in rendering decisions?

[Caroline Maynard]

I have to say that I have only intended to order the release or the treatment of a file twice so far. I've never had to go that far. People know that we have the authority. Just knowing that we can do it is a big advantage in our dealing with the institution.

The other authority we have now that is a tremendous advantage and that has had a huge positive impact is the publication of our reports. When we can publish a report that explains the position of the institution and our position, it really helps later on in guiding other requesters and institutions in understanding the act and understanding its application when they see files that are similar.

At this point, I actually prefer the authority to publish. As I said, I haven't used the ordering power. I will use it when I have to, but I prefer to resolve things informally if people are satisfied and you get the result you want faster that way. If I issue and order to an institution, the institution can then contest it in court, so there's another step, and it could lead to more delays. Therefore, I prefer if we can do it informally.

I invite you to go on my site and see some of the reports we've published. I think we're going to see more and more of those in the next year.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

With regard to the nature of the complaints, if I can call them such, could you give us an idea not so much in terms of percentages, because obviously I'm not looking into the specificities, but of what the first major complaint would be in this kind of category, or the second? Just give the committee an idea of the main complaints that you see on a yearly basis.

[Caroline Maynard]

Bar one, the main complaint is about delays, extensions, unreasonable extensions taken by institutions to respond to an access request, or people not receiving any response at all, as we were talking about earlier. I think last year we had 3,000 cases of complaints about extensions or delays.

Normally, again, we are able to get the institution to respond and to resolve these cases, but we need to look at why they are taking so long.

One key reason is consultations between departments. If you're consulting with another department, it doesn't have a timeline to respond to you. Often institutions are just waiting to get the response from another institution, and that's a huge problem within our act. That's something I have addressed in my submissions to change within the next legislative review. It's to add some timelines.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Yes. That was what I was going to suggest, putting some sort of a timetable and prescriptive delays to help you in your investigations.

With regard to the recommendations, I went on the website and looked at some of the recommendations and amendments proposed. I'm citing the third one. I want to hear more on making the reporting requirements the same for all in-house lobbyist registrations.

I understand that there is a difference between corporations and organizations. I want to hear you a bit on that and how you see that amendment improving the process.

[Caroline Maynard]

I think you're referring to the recommendations from Commissioner Bélanger. The lobbyist commissioner is going to be coming to you after me.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, right. Sorry about that.

I'm going to go back to the publishing of the results of the investigations. When can we expect the next publication of all the investigations that you've carried on?

[Caroline Maynard]

One of the things in the act is that when I issue a final report, I have to wait 35 days before I can publish a report. It gives the institution some time to digest the report before it's public and is published on my website. That's something I also recommended that we remove in the next review of the legislation, because I think Canadians—the public and the institutions—should be able to see our recommendations or orders right away. We shouldn't be having to wait. Right now, at least, I have to wait. Every 35 days after a report is issued, we publish the reports in both French and English.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, that's it for me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Ms. Lattanzio.

Commissioner Maynard, thanks so much for your testimony this afternoon. I thank you for making yourself available and I look forward to hearing from you again in the future. Thanks so much for answering the questions that we had.

Colleagues, I will suspend the meeting now to allow for Madame Bélanger to be added to the exchange, as well as other members. We'll call this meeting back to order right on the 2:00 mark.

Again, thank you, Commissioner.

[Caroline Maynard]

Thank you very much and have a good day.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Maynard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

The meeting is suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

I call the meeting back to order.

We have Madame Bélanger joining us. Thanks so much, Commissioner, for joining us for the second hour of this meeting. We'll turn it over to you for an opening statement, and then we'll certainly have some questions for you as we review these estimates.

Madame Bélanger, we'll turn it over to you.

[Nancy Bélanger, Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I believe this is the first time we meet.

Committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on the main estimates. I am pleased to speak to you about my office's accomplishments over the past fiscal year and our plans for this one.

I want to start by saying that I am so very proud of the way my staff responded with innovative thinking, adaptability and resolve over the past 14 months. Part of this success is due to thoughtful planning during our move in 2019, when we ensured we had the tools and commitment we needed to be a modern and mobile workforce.

That decision paid huge dividends when we suddenly shifted to telework in March 2020. As a result, my office was able to face its busiest year and deliver on the three areas of my mandate: maintaining the registry of lobbyists, ensuring compliance with the Lobbying Act and the lobbyist code of conduct, and fostering awareness of Canada's lobbying regime among all stakeholders.

I will begin with the Registry of Lobbyists.

When individuals, corporations, and organizations lobby the federal government, they must file a public registration that contains specific details about their lobbying activity. They must also report certain oral and arranged communications with high-level decision-makers in monthly communication reports.

The past year brought records in several areas. We saw the highest monthly average of active lobbyists and a record of 6,435 in March 2021. There were 2,457 new registrations. This reflects an increase of 41% from the previous fiscal year. With respect to monthly communication reports, we also saw record numbers with a total of 28,919 for the year.

Our activities to ensure compliance also increased: 28 preliminary assessments were initiated, almost twice the number of the previous year. During the last fiscal year, six preliminary assessments proceeded to the investigation stage and 12 were closed. I suspended three investigations after referring them to the RCMP. I also recently tabled one investigation report in Parliament. My office had 24 preliminary assessments and four investigations ongoing at the end of the last fiscal year.

On the outreach front, we shifted to a completely virtual model. The team averaged more than one presentation per week, reaching more than 900 stakeholders. I also participated in several virtual events at the international level to speak about the Canadian experience with lobbying regulation. As you know, many other jurisdictions view the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct as models that they aspire to emulate.

While Canada's legislation delivers on the goal of fostering transparent and ethical lobbying, there's always room for improvement. Therefore, upon your request, I submitted a report called “Improving the Lobbying Act: Preliminary recommendations” to this committee in February. It outlines 11 areas where I believe that improvements to the legislation would enhance transparency, fairness, clarity and efficiency. I look forward to discussing these recommendations with you.

Last November, we launched a public consultation to seek input from stakeholders on potential changes to the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. The office is currently revising the code for the purposes of further consultation. I expect that I will be able to refer to you, the committee, a new and updated Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct and publish the final version in the Canada Gazette before the end of this fiscal year.

Other key initiatives for this year include enhancing the usability of the Registry of Lobbyists and making it easier to enter and find information. We will also explore ways to improve efficiencies in compliance work and expand awareness and understanding of the act and the code by using stakeholder feedback to help us focus outreach activities.

All of this work is being performed by a very small team of 28 employees. It is important to recognize that more often than not, they are asked to go well beyond what is required of their position.

My total budget is approximately $4.18 million, excluding employee benefit payments. More than three-quarters of my total allocation goes to salaries and benefits, leaving me with an operating budget of about $1 million. About half of that amount is spent to obtain corporate services, such as human resources, from other government institutions. The Office’s budget has not changed substantially since 2008.

That is why I am pleased to say that we received a positive answer to our request for additional funding. Budget 2021 allocated a total increase of $4-million over the next five years to help ensure that the Registry of Lobbyists and the Office's information management and IT systems remain modern, reliable, secure, and accessible. The increase will mainly serve to hire five additional information management and IT employees.

I would like to conclude my remarks by thanking each and every member of the Office. I want to recognize their dedication, professionalism and excellence in delivering on our mandate despite the challenges of the last year.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Commissioner.

We'll turn to Mr. Carrie for the first round of questions.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank you, Commissioner, for being here today.

I was wondering if you could comment on subsection 14.1(1) of the Lobbying Act. It recommends that a comprehensive review take place every five years. The last one was done in 2012, which means the review should have been done in 2017. It's almost four years later, and the review has not taken place.

I was wondering if you could comment on that, and if you think a review at this time is urgent.

[Nancy Bélanger]

I'm sorry, but I didn't hear the end of the question. Was the question if it is urgent? I didn't hear the last part of the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Yes, that was the idea.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Yes, I asked if it is urgent.

[Nancy Bélanger]

When I appeared on my nomination back in November of 2017, I was asked to be prepared for recommendations on the review of the act by the spring of 2018. It's been three years since then, so I think it is very important that we seriously look at reviewing the Lobbying Act. If we wait until 2022, it will have been 10 years since it was looked at.

I think it is time. Some of the recommendations I'm making are the same as ones made in 2012, so I think it is important to start looking at this work.

I fully understand a lot more pressing issues have occurred in the last year, but with the will of Parliament, I think it would be wonderful, and I'm here to assist in that review.