I will continue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With respect to cabinet confidences, ISED in fact provided information to the committee on the Canada student service grant that was a cabinet confidence. This is in keeping with the public disclosures of information on this matter made by members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. A principled approach was adopted to this information to ensure a non-selective application of the protection afforded by cabinet confidentiality.
I should add that in determining the appropriate redactions, institutions also draw on the access to information manual of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. It contains discretionary administrative guidelines to help government institutions administer the legislation and meet policy requirements. It is a detailed guide that explains the requirements of the act, the regulations and the related policy instruments. It also contains policy advice, practical interpretations and best practices. Where appropriate, relevant case law is cited and excerpts are sometimes reproduced.
The Treasury Board Secretariat is responsible for issuing direction and guidance to government institutions with respect to the administration of the Access to Information Act and interpretation of this policy. This ensures a consistent approach and understanding across institutions. The work of TBS is critical, and is complemented by the knowledge and experience of the members of the access to information teams across government. Consultations form a key part of their work. These include consultations with other parts of the institution as well as with other departments and third parties when required. Redactions are only applied following the necessary outreach to those who provided the documents in order to obtain a clear understanding of why they believed a redaction should be applied. The same process applies when analyzing the documents retrieved to respond to a parliamentary committee. Redactions are applied carefully and only after a thorough round of consultations has taken place.
The goal throughout the process of preparing the documents for the committee was to release as much information as possible while respecting the relevant acts and in line with the intent of the committee's motion. It is reflection of the duty to assist embedded in the Access to Information Act that institutions seek to fully understand a request in order to provide the most documents possible in response.
I hope that my remarks today help members understand in some instances the scope and nature of the redactions that were applied. In the case of ISED, the decision on what information to publish or release and what information to protect or redact, as in all information requests, including this committee's, was made in keeping with the spirit of the Access to Information Act—the spirit of openness and transparency, based on the principle of and commitment to open government.
This is why, Mr. Chair, I have to reiterate at this point that unless we invite the relevant senior department heads, the deputy ministers who, along with their teams, did the redacting, to explain why they redacted the information they did, I'm not sure how we could go forward as a committee to vote on something that.... You know, that is key information that is missing, for me as a member of the finance committee, to ensure that I fully understand before I cast my vote.
I urge my honourable committee members, let's step up. Let's do the right thing. Let's vote on what is relevant here. Let's get back to doing the very important work we were all elected to do. It's certainly an honour and a privilege to be on the finance committee. We should be looking at pre-budget consultations.
I don't want to exhaust that point. All of us have discussed that. I am confident and certain that my colleagues across the way feel the same way. It's just a matter of agreeing on how to get there. Let's do what we have to do. Let's do what we were elected to do. Let's get on with the very important work the finance committee has to do. Hopefully, we can get through this tonight and, if we do have another meeting tomorrow, it will be on pre-budget consultations.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.