Evidence of meeting #17 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was institutions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
No, I sent an invitation last Friday. I already have had two responses, from the Minister of Health and the Minister of Heritage.
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Two out of 13 so far.
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I think it's very encouraging.
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I sent it three days ago.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Not yet.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I will follow up with them if they don't respond.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Actually, my goal is to talk to most of them and to also talk to the Prime Minister, if I can at some point, because I think that's the top. That's what I'm saying, leadership.
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
We need the ministers and we need our Prime Minister to all say the same thing and to show it through action. I do believe—
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Not to mention that he put in his letter to every single minister that he expected them to be open and transparent, but it doesn't seem that this is the case, does it?
We've been talking a little bit about the culture of delay or the culture of complacency. It would seem that the system actually allows for this because it has no teeth. You're saying that they can miss their deadline and there's no problem. They might get a courtesy call from you or a courtesy email from you, but then beyond that, there's really nothing that can be done.
Is that correct?
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Actually, under the act now, I can make orders, so yes, there are more teeth and I can also publish those orders, which seems to have had a lot of publicity lately. Unfortunately, it takes that, but actually it has a very positive movement once you start also including the leaders in the problem. That's why I say they are the solution. Most of them don't know until you raise the issue to their level. That's what I'm doing in the next month.
February 17th, 2021 / 6:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Okay. Thank you. I can appreciate that and I know that you're working very hard, but it's exactly your point. It does start with leadership and leadership at the highest level is the minister. The ministers are really the ones who need to communicate expectations and clearly they have not taken their mandate letters seriously enough to be able to say to their department officials that they want to be open, that they want to be transparent, that they want to be honest with Canadians. That's really unfortunate. Mostly, it's unfortunate because Canadians deserve access to information. They deserve to know that democracy is being upheld in every single corner of government departments.
You said that with every crisis it's common that there would be an increased demand. Now with COVID, you said not so much, but nevertheless, there are very important questions that are being asked during this time. That's what I would say.
Are there some questions that should be given priority over others?
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I do believe that anything with a public interest should be at the top of their priority list. This is something I also recommended, that the act itself be amended. One purpose of the act is that we're doing this for the greatest public interest, so if there is something that usually would be protected but there is a real public interest, for something like vaccines, the environment or health, it should definitely be something they should keep in mind.
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Harder. Five minutes go by just as quickly as two and a half, it seems.
We'll now go to Mr. Kusmierczyk for five minutes.
6:50 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you very much, Commissioner, for your responses. I've been following this discussion quite intently. Most of my questions are nuts-and-bolts questions.
I read the most recent ATIP statistical report that was put out, and I noticed that about 74.8% of requests are directed at one ministry, which is the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Can you explain why and give us a sense of the kinds of requests that are being made of the IRCC?
6:50 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Yes, and you will be very pleased that in the next month or two, I will be issuing a special report with respect to what's going on at Immigration. I won't be able to give you too much detail, because we're finalizing our systemic investigation. I have to say that Immigration has been a key player and very collaborative in our systemic investigation, because they also want to see if there's a solution to what you just said. They received 120,000 requests last year, mainly from people who were asking for status reports on their immigration or refugee claims. There is a portal that gives some information but not all of the information that they need to understand decisions, so these are the types of requests they receive, mainly.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Okay. I get it.
Most requests emanate from businesses. Can you explain that? How does that relate to the fact that, again, 75% are directed at IRCC? Can you give us a sense of what businesses are asking for? I'm just curious.
6:55 p.m.
Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The businesses, I believe, appear because a lot of non-Canadians will use agents or lawyers or a company composed of experts in immigration files, and part of that process involves access requests.
6:55 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
That's what I thought. I just wanted to have that confirmed. That is interesting.
The number of pages processed increased dramatically, both in 2017 and then also last year, from about 15 million to 32 million. That's an increase of 17 million pages.
In 2017, there was one report that was responsible for 14.8 million pages produced. Can you explain to us what type of request would require 14.8 million pages?