Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will attempt to do that.
I'll just to remind everybody that “[o]penness, transparency and accountability are guiding principles” of ESDC and the federal government as a whole. The public servants at ESDC worked for many weeks to gather and prepare the documents requested by the committee. Let me assure you that principles of being open and transparent were applied in preparing the package to respond to the production of papers motion on WE Charity.
Department officials also applied principles laid out in the Access to Information Act when assessing the documents to ensure, among other things, the protection of personal information and cabinet confidence. While more than 97% of the information was released in its entirety, less than 3% was redacted due to exemptions based on sections 16, 19, 21 and 69 of the act. I will provide more information on each of these sections shortly.
First of all, I would like to point out that ATIP “gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents and any person or corporation present in Canada a right to access records of government institutions that are subject to the Act”. It's also important to point out that:
The Act complements other policies and procedures that are intended to make government information publicly available, such as open government initiatives and proactive disclosure of travel and hospitality expenses, contracts and other frequently requested information.
In the case relevant to this motion, a large volume of records were initially identified as being relevant to the motion. In addition to the motion, the ESDC ATIP office received over 70 requests on the same subject matter. These requests are all being processed formally under the ATIP process.
Let me give you a few examples of the ATIP requests that were received.
One was a request to disclose “all correspondence with WE Charity and ME to WE regarding delivery of the Canada student service grant, as well as any contracts with either of the two organizations regarding the same from April 2020 to June 26, 2020”.
One was to provide “a copy of all decks, presentations and analysis in the possession of Employment and Social Development Canada since March 15, 2020 regarding the administration of the CSSG”.
One was to provide “a copy of all briefing notes to the ADM level and above regarding the administration of the Canada student service grant between between March 15, 2020 and present”—June 29, 2020”.
Another one was to provide “the emails, briefing notes, agendas, minutes, recordings and a list of participants regarding the organization, set-up, consultations and event itself of every meeting involving the Minister of Employment and Social Development mentioning iwanttohelp.org”.
In total, ESDC received 72 access to information and privacy requests. It is to be noted that, out of those requests, the ATIP office was able to offer the release package provided to the finance committee to requesters who agreed to receiving the package responsive to their requests. As such, some of the requests listed are now completed. As for the remainder of the requests, they will be responded to upon completion of the processes required under the ATI Act.
I will now attempt to address how ESDC processes ATIP requests.