Evidence of meeting #40 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was requests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
When you came before this committee previously, there was a mention of a few organizations that made so many requests that it bogged the system down completely and made it impossible to respond to requests. That's what I understood.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
It's actually the opposite.
I believe that institutions create their own problems by not managing their information properly. Access to information requests often lead to lots and lots of information. That's why the act contains an obligation to talk with the plaintiffs to make sure that their requests are understood properly. There's also an obligation to properly manage the information, which is an issue within government currently.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Do you think you've improved this situation since you last appeared before this committee?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
I'm doing my job. I examine the complaints we receive. What I can tell you is that my office's workload continues to increase. The number of complaints keeps increasing. I couldn't say whether there's been any impact on problematic complaints, as you described them.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you very much.
You mentioned independent funding. If I understand correctly, it means that it wouldn't be the House of Commons that would be in charge of the funding and tell you how much money would be allocated to you each year. You said that independent funding was necessary. Can you tell us more about how you see that working out in practical terms?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
The way things work now, if my office needs additional funding, we have to make a request through the usual budget process, just like any federal institution, which means that it has to be accepted by the Minister of Justice and then sent to the Minister of Finance and the Treasury Board. Our process is the same as any other institution.
All I'm asking for is for the funding not to come from an institution that could be the subject of a complaint I have to work on or one of my investigations. I'm currently working on cases involving some of these departments. What would make the funding process more independent would be for us to come to a committee like this one and to ask for our budget to be increased, or even decreased, to have a fair and transparent process to make sure that our budget is in line with the number of cases we deal with on a given year.
There are precedents. The Ethics Commissioner has an independent process, and so does the Chief Electoral Officer and others in other jurisdictions. There are several different examples that could be used as models.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I see: depending on your spending estimates, you would come to a committee designated for that purpose to present your funding request.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
The idea is to have a budget that's in line with demand and that wouldn't be set by departments that are the object of complaints and investigations by my office.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Okay, thank you.
If we're talking about meeting deadlines and securing funding, how can your office speed up its investigations when it's expected to cut spending and limit internal growth?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
As I said in my remarks, we're not impacted by cuts this year. However, my budget has been hit by changes to collective agreements over the last few years. What's certain is that my office always has to manage its funds properly, because, at the end of the day, our priority is to do as many investigations as possible, because that's our mandate. What I fear is that we get to a point where we hit a ceiling. Just in April, we got 60% more complaints in one month than last year.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Commissioner.
Mr. Bonin, welcome to the committee. You have the floor for six minutes.
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm very happy to be here.
Ms. Maynard, thank you for being here.
In May 2024, your predecessor, Mr. Dufresne, launched a strategic plan until 2027. It had three points: protecting and promoting privacy rights, producing guidance documents and targeted awareness tools, and preparing for the implementation of a new Privacy Act. Are you still following that plan or do you have your own strategy?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is separate from the Office of the Information Commissioner. Mr. Dufresne has his own strategic plan, and our office has its own three-year plan, which was introduced at the beginning of last year.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
Right. Do you feel that you have reached your current objectives? Are there aspects that need to be solidified, or do you need more funding for that, for example?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
My office's first goal is to make sure that the right to access information is upheld, obviously. As I mentioned earlier, there are sometimes surges in the number of complaints, which we have no control over. At this stage, the priority is to make sure that complaints are investigated as quickly as possible.
Our pillars are similar to Mr. Dufresne's, but different in that he's in charge of protecting privacy while my role is to give Canadians access to information.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
You said quite clearly that you don't currently have enough funding to carry out your mandate, given the upward trend of the number of requests and complaints and increased response times.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
At this time, I believe that our budget is enough for what we've accomplished so far. What worries me is the uptick in the number of complaints. As I said, we have no control over that and no way to access additional funding to address it.
Our caseload has decreased and become more manageable, but we're receiving a lot more complaints. For example, this month, we've received 60% more complaints than the same month last year. If the trend continues, we won't have the capacity to maintain a reasonable caseload, which will negatively impact plaintiffs, Canadians and, ultimately, the right to access information.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
Do you need more staff to handle all these complaints and do all the necessary investigations?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
If the number of requests keeps increasing, then yes. We'll need to either reallocate funds internally or obtain more funding. With what's currently going on within government, it's difficult, because everyone's budget is being cut. It's hard for me to say that I need more money while access to information units within federal institutions are being cut.
What I'm advocating for is for access to information to be considered a priority because it's a legal right and for access to information units to not be cut. Even if I had more money and could conduct more investigations, it would all be for naught if federal institutions were unable to respond to my requests for information or representations.
We have to strike a balance. Of course, if transparency is the priority, we need to ensure that the right mechanisms are in place so that the funding matches the demand.
Bloc
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
I would like more flexible funding, actually. If the number of complaints starts going down, the budget could be reduced accordingly. However, at this time, we're forced into a funding request process that has a one-year cycle. If the request is accepted, it's already too late when we get the funding, or we have to set up a hiring process. It's hard to manage a rising or diminishing workload without having any control over the number of requests.
Bloc
Patrick Bonin Bloc Repentigny, QC
You mentioned processing times that can go up to three years. That's a very long time. I assume that sometimes departments don't want the information to be made public and so they take forever to respond. I assume that happens sometimes. There may also be capacity issues.
Do you believe that you have the tools necessary to get departments to release the requested information in a timely manner? Conversely, is there anything that you're missing that's helping them stall for time?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
Since 2019, the Office of the Information Commissioner has the ability to make orders. It can also issue subpoenas to federal institutions and force them to release documents. I can say that, up to now, I've had the necessary tools.
That being said, my office still needs to have enough staff to handle incoming complaints. Assigning files is difficult because we receive more than we're able to take on. Once the files are assigned, the investigations go fairly well. The office's authorities are properly used and respected, generally.