Information & Ethics Committee on March 3rd, 2022

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 10 of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021, and therefore, members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

The committee is meeting today in order to discuss the report of the subcommittee on agenda and procedure and then to discuss drafting instructions for the draft report on mobility data. Before we do this, I would like to discuss the supplementary estimates (C). Because there is difficulty procedurally with the Zoom application going from public to in camera, I'm going to do my best to deal with everything that can be dealt with in public first and then proceed to go in camera for the drafting instructions.

First of all, to deal with the supplementary estimates, pursuant to Standing Order 81(5), the supplementary estimates are deemed referred to a standing committee or committees upon tabling. Each committee may have referred to it a vote or a series of votes. In our case today, vote 1c under Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada was referred to the committee.

Each committee can decide whether it wishes to study the supplementary estimates and report to the House. If the committee opts not to report to the House, the estimates are deemed reported to the House not later than three sitting days before the final sitting or three sitting days before the last allotted day in the current supply period. As of now, we still do not know when the last allotted day will be. Therefore, committees may wish to consider the supplementary estimates and report the votes to the House. They are encouraged to do so as early as possible after they are referred.

What I would propose—and this is based on discussions that happened before—is allowing the committee to give its feedback on the estimates rather than just allowing them to be deemed reported. We won't have testimony on it, but I'll call the question at this point on whether it is the will of the committee to adopt the supplementary estimates.

Mr. Kurek, go ahead, please.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Chair, I would ask that it be proceeded with and passed on division.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Okay.

OFFICES OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONERS OF CANADA

Vote 1c—Program expenditures – Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada..........$458,624

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

Is it the will of the committee that the chair report the estimates to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

With that, I'm going to move on to the first report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Your subcommittee met on Monday, February 28, 2022, to consider the business of the committee, and agreed to make the following recommendations:

1. That, in relation to its study of the collection and use of mobility data by the Government of Canada, the committee send for, from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Health Canada, the Privacy Impact Assessment, and all documents used to inform the Privacy Impact Assessment, developed with regard to PHAC’s use of mobility data tracking for COVID-19, and that these documents be received by the committee no later than Friday, March 11, 2022.

2. That, in relation to its study of the collection and use of mobility data by the Government of Canada, the committee request BlueDot Inc. to file the names of its data providers by Friday, March 11, 2022, and that the analysts attach this information to the report of this study.

3. That, in relation to the upcoming study of the use and impact of facial recognition technology, members of the committee submit their lists of suggested witnesses to the clerk no later than Thursday, March 10, 2022.

4. That the meetings of Monday, March 21 and Thursday, March 24, 2022, be dedicated to the study of the use and impact of facial recognition technology.

5. That the meetings of Monday, March 28 and Thursday, March 31, 2022, be dedicated to the consideration of a draft report on the collection and use of mobility data by the Government of Canada.

That is the report of the subcommittee and its recommendations to this committee.

I will ask for a motion to approve that report.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Ms. Khalid moved it.

I'll ask it in reverse again, since this is a hybrid sitting. Are there any who are opposed to adoption of the report?

(Motion agreed to)

The report is carried.

Those were the two main items that I wanted to take care of before we move in camera, but I did want to make sure that members.... We had a couple of motions floating around. If there is other committee business that anyone wants to entertain in public, or if there is something before we go in camera, now is the time.

Go ahead, Mr. Kurek. You have the floor.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I won't take but a minute.

I certainly hear often from constituents and many Canadians that they're curious about the status of the previous study, called “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending”, more often referred to as the WE Charity situation. As a member of this committee during the first part of the last Parliament, certainly I hear many of these questions.

Today, Mr. Chair, I would like to give notice of the following motion:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h), the committee undertake a study into issues of conflict of interest and the Lobbying Act in relation to pandemic spending, provided that (a) the evidence and documentation received by the committee during both sessions of the 43rd Parliament on the subject be taken into consideration by the committee in the current session; (b) the committee adopt the report entitled “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending”, originally adopted as the committee's second report in the second session of the 43rd Parliament; (c) dissenting or supplementary opinions be submitted electronically in both official languages to the clerk of the committee within 48 hours of the adoption of this motion; and (d) the chair table this report in the House on or before March 31, 2022.

Mr. Chair, I'm aware of the important business that this committee has to discuss today. I'm not looking to debate this today, but rather to simply give notice of motion so that it can be dealt with—hopefully, expediently—in a future meeting. I would further note, Mr. Chair, that an electronic version will be sent to the chair post-haste.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Thank you for the notice of motion.

If there is no other business.... I see Monsieur Villemure has his hand up.

Go ahead, Monsieur Villemure.

Give me one moment. I'm sorry. I didn't test and get my audio organized. I want to make sure I catch this.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

You are forgiven.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Go ahead, Monsieur Villemure.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to give notice of the following motion. It was actually put forward at the beginning of the session:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h), the committee undertake a study concerning the prevention of the capture and use of Canadians' personal data and information for malicious purposes by foreign powers and corporations; that the committee invite the Privacy Commissioner, experts and researchers, particularly in the field of cyber security and representatives of police forces and national security services; that the committee hold a minimum of six meetings; and that the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House.

The notice of motion was sent out earlier this week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Thank you for giving us notice of that motion.

Are there any other items or business before I suspend the meeting to go in camera? No.

The meeting is suspended.

[Proceedings continue in camera]