Evidence of meeting #71 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was privacy.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Rushworth, if I'm not mistaken, you have eyes, you have ears, you can't talk and you have no arms.
Director, Communications, Outreach and Planning, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
All right.
My colleague talked about time frames. If we go a long time without a commissioner, the files will pile up. What would happen if the parliamentarian you were investigating gave up their seat, for example?
Director, Communications, Outreach and Planning, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
I'm not absolutely certain, but the fact that we still don't have a commissioner is not an issue right now because we can still do investigations, and we'll be able to do the work that we can't do now when the new commissioner is appointed.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
If there was a reprimand of some sort and the individual was no longer a parliamentarian, there would therefore be no effect.
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
If I'm not mistaken, even if the individual is no longer a parliamentarian, we can still pursue the investigation.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay, thank you very much.
Right now, the commissioner position is vacant and the cases are piling up. I'm not asking you to tell' me how many there are, but in your opinion, can this situation go on for long without it becoming an issue? I'm not talking about what's in the government's hands here.
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
As far as operations go, things can continue on without any issue. It's more the investigations and other things listed in the act that we can't—
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Those other things, you can only accumulate so much of them, I imagine. I understand that there are five-year and 10-year windows, but if the individual is going to be appointed and set up with a big pile of files on their desk, that isn't the best thing.
What would you prefer? Would you like to see the commissioner appointed immediately?
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
We'd certainly like to have someone in the position, but it's not our decision to make.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
I understand, but for you, the sooner someone's in the position, the better, operations-wise.
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
It depends what part of operations. On my end, within my units, everything can continue on right now.
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
As far as investigations go, yes, it would certainly be ideal if we had a commissioner.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
All right.
How do you feel about the commissioner's salary being one-third lower? In your opinion, will that have any incidence on hiring the next commissioner?
Director, Communications, Outreach and Planning, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
That type of question is not within our mandate. It would be better if you asked the Privity Council Office, which is responsible for filling the position.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay, but when three commissioners have similar salaries and the fourth one has their salary cut by a third, I don't see that as a good sign. I just wanted to point that out. Thank you very much.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Villemure.
Next we have Mr. Green for a final intervention. You have two and a half minutes.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thank you.
This question is for the conflict of interest and ethics folks who are with us here today, and whoever feels that they want to take this on.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Hang on, Mr. Green. We don't see you on our screen here. Do you have the video?
There you are. Go ahead, please.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thank you very much.
This question is for the folks from the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
Do you feel that you have enough financial and human resources to pursue examinations to the extent you feel is required?
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
We were able to fulfill our mandate last year with a similar budget. We are only asking for a 2% increase this year. We do feel that we can continue to fulfill our mandate this year with this amount.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I know that in the appendix of the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner's report, it is indicated that the actual spending for 2021-22 was $6.57 million, which is an amount that is lower than the total spending authorities for which Parliament's approval was sought for that period, which was $6.8 million.
Can you explain why the office spent less than the authorities last year?
Director, Corporate Management, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
The surplus last year was basically due to salary.
As I mentioned earlier, over 80% of our budget is for salaries. We had some delays in staffing last year. We had a little bit of a higher turnover rate last year, so we had to fill these vacant positions. That is mostly what caused the surplus last year.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Was funding received by your office last year carried over to this fiscal year?