Government Operations Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

For the work related to the act only, how many employees do you have?

[Luc Bégin]

Ms. Ferlatte and I are the ones who manage internal disclosures.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay, I understand.

What is the total budget of your office and roughly what part of it is dedicated to the work related to the act?

[Luc Bégin]

The ombudsman, integrity and resolution office has a staff of 20 people who support the various services offered by the office, including those related to values and ethics and informal conflict management. They are mediation and conciliation specialists. For her part, Ms. Ferlatte manages the services related to internal disclosures. Give the size of my office, $1.7 million of the budget goes to salaries and close to $120,000 goes to operations.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Last Tuesday, I reviewed a table showing that 300 to 400 cases are reported every year, whether they are founded or not. How many of those cases do you review? I believe it is eight or nine cases, is that correct?

[Luc Bégin]

Not including the reports related to specific cases, there were eight last year, or in the past two years. No cases were reported to us this year, so no formal disclosures were made in fiscal year 2016-17.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The law goes back to 2011, as I recall. Do you produce an internal report? Is there a yearly record for the institution?

You began in your position a year ago. Did you meet with your predecessor? Of course, I would imagine that you had a meeting, but were you informed about the office's activities related to the act?

What, in general terms, are your office's activities related to the act on a yearly basis?

[Luc Bégin]

Every year, the integrity officer reports to the deputy minister on activities, case volume and priorities. This year, or last year, I prepared a report that covered the activities of the office itself, including those related to internal disclosures. This annual report essentially covers the case volume and activities. I also make observations in the part pertaining to my role as ombudsman and set priorities for the coming year.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Can you give us some examples of the content of the report?

[Luc Bégin]

The report covers the volume of cases, statistics, my observations as ombudsman, the employer-employee relationship, and awareness activities to encourage employees to use the services of our office in a preventive way rather than as a last resort.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Does it include various recommendations on how to improve the process or indeed the act? Would you suggest any changes to the act?

[Luc Bégin]

My comments in the report are based on my observations. They can include suggestions, but I do not make specific recommendations about the act.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Bégin.

Mr. Weir, you have seven minutes.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks very much for coming to testify before our committee.

You mentioned, in response to Mr. Clarke, that dealing with issues under the act occupies about 10% or 15% of your time. I just wanted to clarify what proportion of Madame Ferlatte's job it is.

[Luc Bégin]

She's the IDS manager, so it's 100%.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay, so you have your employees entirely devoted to it, and it's a small portion of your work.

[Luc Bégin]

Correct.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks for clarifying that.

It's obviously a very specialized type of work to do these forensic investigations when someone believes there has been reprisal because they've reported wrongdoing. When you started in this job, what kind of background or training did you have to do that kind of work?

[Luc Bégin]

First of all, our office does not do the investigation. We actually contract the wrongdoing investigation if it's filed under our office.

With respect to the background, I've been in the public service in labour relations and HR for 24 years, and I've been an ombudsman for about five years.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Excellent.

Who do you contract the investigations to?

[Luc Bégin]

There are standing offers.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay, so there are outside firms that specialize in doing the investigations.

[Luc Bégin]

There are outside firms that specialize in investigations, yes.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Under what circumstances would you recommend that someone actually go to the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner?