Information & Ethics Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[Matthew Shea]

We have certainly worked to use better IM practices at PCO. Ten years ago, I would not have been able to say that we were necessarily up to where we needed to be when it came to information management. We have invested in what is called GCdocs, which is the system of record within government. We have invested in the best AI tools that are currently available, but we think there's much better to come.

We are hamstrung a little bit. One of the challenges we deal with, which we tried to overcome during the pandemic, is that we saw a spike in our backlog during the pandemic, because we need people physically in the office as we have top secret documents and secret documents, and our entire access to information system needs to be, by design, on a secure system. One of the investments we made during the pandemic was that we built classified laptops that allowed employees who were working remotely to still respond to classified requests.

This was an example of us working very closely with IT and IT security professionals, and showing a little bit of risk tolerance to try to find solutions at a time when it was very difficult to do this. I think that helped us to not have a worse situation than we have today, but I will keep coming back to saying that we're not happy with where we are. We know we need to do more, and we are actively trying to do more.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

You have 15 seconds left, Ms. Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

That's fine, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Thériault, you have the floor.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Shea, I assume you will be answering our questions.

The public service is in the process of downsizing. According to the government's website, we're talking about 275 public service positions, including 40 executive positions. I don't know if those positions have already been eliminated, but Commissioner Maynard expressed concerns when she was here:

As the government works to reduce spending, leaders must keep in mind that access to information is not a service. This is a quasi-constitutional right grounded in law, and it must be treated as such. This right is put at risk by cuts to access to information and privacy teams, as well as to the program areas that hold the documents.

What do you say to those concerns, which I share?

[Matthew Shea]

I can't speak for the Government of Canada, and I can't speak for other departments, but at the Privy Council Office, we are completely in agreement with the fact that it is a right and it is something we need to safeguard. It is the reason that, during our most recent expenditure review exercise, we did not reduce in any way, shape or form the size of our access to information team.

In fact, we are actively now trying to recruit, and we are trying to recruit impacted employees from other departments and our own. We are hoping to save some jobs for people who would like to stay in the government by helping them to retrain to work in access to information or, in the case that you mentioned, if another department is reducing their access to information team, we will be happy to be the beneficiaries of hiring those people. Our goal will actually be the opposite, which is to increase our capacity.

As I mentioned in my opening statement, we are committed to transferring historical intelligence records, which make up a big part of our complaints right now and are the types of files that the Information Commissioner highlighted.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Do you have a workforce adjustment plan? Can you tell us how many more staff you would need so you wouldn't end up with 42 orders in a year, for example? We have heard your good intentions now, but what is your action plan actually? How many additional resources would you need so you don't end up in a position like the one you are in, which you agree is far from perfect?

[Matthew Shea]

We don't have an exact number. I think our goal is to find four or five individuals in the very near future within our access to information team.

For those in the public service who are affected by the comprehensive expenditure review, if they choose to stay in the government, they need to have meaningful work. We are actively exploring whether some of that meaningful work could be responding to requests from Canadians to give us some surge capacity.

To try to reduce that, as I think I mentioned earlier, and perhaps not very articulately, we have created a bit of a tiger team that is focused just on our backlog and on those complaints. A good chunk of those complaints relate to historical intelligence, so our hope is that, as we transfer that to Library and Archives Canada, those complaints will go away and that will reduce it.

The commitment we made today to transfer to Library and Archives is directly linked to our commitment to reduce the number of complaints and increase our transparency to Canadians.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Looking at the performance of various institutions, it sometimes seems that the act is a necessary evil. There seems to be some push-back from them in terms of being proactive and getting ahead of access to information requirements.

Government institutions often wait for requests instead of engaging in proactive disclosure. Wouldn't that be something to consider, if the quality and the vitality of democracy are at stake? Responding to access requests is key of course, whereas, conversely, if you don't provide reliable information, people complain about disinformation. That's what we're looking at, institutions complaining about disinformation. So why not make proactive disclosure a priority?

[Matthew Shea]

To repeat a little bit of what I said earlier, that is why we are transferring information to Library and Archives more actively. That is part of our transparency to Canadians, because if we can transfer that out and that reduces our complaints, we can focus those resources on other active complaints and deal with the overall number of access to information files that we have.

Our goal is absolutely to have more than just good intentions and to have actions that go with them. We have been using the proactive disclosure approach where we can, whether it's transition documents or travel, hospitality and those types of things. We are looking at other opportunities where we can share information.

In the example I shared earlier about the Prime Minister's travel or cabinet planning forums, that, while not technically proactive disclosure, is us going above and beyond what is required by the act to actually give them the information required. If it's the media to write a newspaper article, or if it's somebody else to be able to ask questions of government, it is about transparency, and we have certainly tried to do that.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

You have 10 seconds.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I'll let the 10 seconds go.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay. You'll have a chance to come back to that.

Mr. Cooper, you have five minutes. Go ahead.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Shea, would you agree that PCO currently has a real problem when it comes to abiding by the Access to Information Act and meeting legislated deadlines, yes or no?

[Matthew Shea]

I would say that PCO has a real challenge in keeping up with the demand that we are receiving and makes every effort. We are absolutely adhering to every order from the Information Commissioner.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Well, I can tell you that when I asked the commissioner, when she appeared earlier this week, whether she had concerns about PCO's lack of compliance with the law, she answered in the affirmative. It's no wonder, because when you look at the statistics in 2024-25, there were 744 access to information requests at PCO, and in relation to those 744 requests, there were 219 complaints accepted by the Information Commissioner for non-compliance with the act. That is a complaint ratio that is a staggering 30%. Presently, PCO has the dubious distinction of having the most complaints of any department across government.

Why is it that the commissioner has had to issue, this year, a record number of orders to comply with the Access to Information Act for PCO? Why has that been necessary?

[Matthew Shea]

I cannot speak for the Information Commissioner as to why she feels it necessary to issue the orders. I can speak to the number of orders we have.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Could it be because there's been non-compliance with the law?

[Matthew Shea]

I don't—

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Isn't that the answer, Mr. Shea?

[Matthew Shea]

An order does not mean non-compliance with the law.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

You said in your testimony, in your opening statement, that PCO is doing everything it can to meet its legislative deadlines. Well, let's look at some of the numbers and some of the cases. The commissioner met with the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Sabia, on November 12. In a backgrounder that she prepared following the meeting, detailing what was discussed, she noted to Mr. Sabia that all of the requests that received orders to respond had been in PCO's backlog for quite some time.

In fact, of the 25 orders that she had issued this year—it's now at 46, by the way, so in a matter of months, it has doubled, but it was 25 at that time—20 relate to delay complaints on requests received by PCO in 2023 or 2024. Now, the deadline is 30 days. Here we have instances where requests were not met, not for a few weeks or a few months, but in some cases for up to two years.

How can you say, in the face of that, that the PCO is doing everything it can to meet its legislative deadlines? How can you say, as you did moments ago, that you have no idea why the commissioner would be issuing such orders in such circumstances? What is she supposed to do?

[Matthew Shea]

I was at the meeting with the clerk and the Information Commissioner, and it was a very productive and positive meeting. In fact, the actions we are taking and some of what I've spoken about today flow directly from that conversation about where we should focus our energy. As mentioned, a large percentage of our backlog does relate to these historical intelligence documents that we have to be quite careful with. We are making active decisions to try to transfer more to Library and Archives.

You referenced the 46 orders this year. I will give you full transparency that as of today, it's 47 and that 79% of those—37 of the 47—relate to those three requesters I mentioned earlier.