Government Operations Committee on Oct. 9th, 2025

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

My understanding is that it does include the task of reviewing past recommendations of this committee as part of their work, which I think is really an important piece as we move forward.

From your perspective, what kinds of improvements or changes would you like to see them reviewing and being incorporated in the review of the PSDPA?

[Harriet Solloway]

I do know that my predecessor did make submissions prior to his departure. There are, I think, a number of areas that could be looked at. I'm always hesitant. There are policy reasons for a lot of things, and there are many things at play. One thing that is an impediment to our investigations—and that may be by design but, nevertheless, is an impediment—is the fact that if evidence exists outside the federal public service, I'm not allowed to look at it. I'm not allowed to even ask somebody for it. It's not even a question of my powers to compel not applying to people. It's that I'm not even allowed to ask.

If, for example, there's an issue that involves anybody from the outside, it's tricky. It's sort of in conflict with other provisions because the act does allow somebody from outside the public service to provide me with information about wrongdoing that I can use to launch an investigation. I can't launch the investigation unless I can talk to that person. I've interpreted the act to mean that I can go back to at least the person who has provided me with the information to try to get more, but my hands are tied in several investigations because I just cannot go outside. That's one example.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Thank you.

Maybe I'll switch gears slightly to some of your opening comments around the extent of the caseload and the work that you are doing and your current request for urgent funding. Can you provide details as to what you are asking for and maybe, as well, what outcomes that funding would enable you to achieve?

[Harriet Solloway]

We're working on that because we have, with some of the funding that we got, developed the data analytics capacity. I'm heavily reliant on data to be able answer that question fully.

What I can tell you is that in our last ask I believe I asked for $9 million, and I had all of the justifications for that. Just in response also to Madam Rochefort, I'll note that all of the justifications for it and the explanations for it are contained in my budget ask. We only got $1 million. I know that, at a minimum, we still need what I originally asked for because I didn't ask for anything that I didn't need. It's a combination of things, primarily personnel but also, of course, anything related to personnel, like space. Space is a big issue because it costs money to rent space, to have space or to fit up space. That money is in short supply in the system. We're looking at that now. For example, we were able to hire some people based on the funding that we got. Now we're in a bit of an accommodation crisis. PSPC is working with us on that, but there is a real question as to where we're going to get the money to fit up office space that we can operate in.

It's a combination of personnel and everything that enables those personnel to actually work.

Does that answer the question?

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

It does answer the question.

Oh, that's time.

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Ms. Gaudreau, you have two and a half minutes, please.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I am shocked to hear that you have a $9‑million shortfall. Based on the numbers you gave us—you mentioned 800 allegations—you don't have the capacity to do your job, which means some cases are investigated, while others are still at the allegation stage.

What is the positive impact of your role as Public Sector Integrity Commissioner?

[Harriet Solloway]

The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act is clear: it is essential that the public trust the public sector.

There must be a body like the commissioner's office to investigate serious cases of misconduct. Otherwise, there's no oversight. I don't believe a public sector can be credible without such a body.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I have another question.

Considering the resources you have, on a scale from 1 to 10, how do you think your work is perceived?

[Harriet Solloway]

Well, that depends on the person you're asking.

Generally, when an organization renders decisions on cases like the ones we are entrusted with, half the people are satisfied, and the other half are not. Sometimes, even when someone gets the decision they were hoping for, since it took one or two years to get there, they are dissatisfied, because the decision came too late. There's always a risk that someone won't be satisfied with our work.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Cobena, welcome back to OGGO. The time is yours.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madam Solloway, I'm reading through your opening remarks about the sustained increase in submissions. While we don't know what's driving that, the submissions of wrongdoing have more than doubled since 2020, but the staffing has not kept pace due to limited resources.

Could you speak to how large the current backlog is? I think you mentioned it was a year, or 12 months to 14 months, in terms of the timing, but could you speak to the number of cases and what service standard targets are realistic under the present funding?

[Harriet Solloway]

I'll give you an example. For investigations, from the time the investigation is launched until the end, our service standard had typically been 80% of the time to be able to complete the investigation within a year. We're not meeting that now. There's no way we can meet that now. I would have to get those statistics for you, which are readily available but I just don't have them with me, to tell you how often we're meeting it now, but we're not. Now we have 66 pending investigations, and I have six investigators and three team leaders.

It doesn't really work this way, but even if an average investigator could complete four to five cases a year, if we do the math, we understand that we have now a years-long backlog in terms of completing some of these investigations, with more being added to the pile weekly. I'm not sure if that answers your question.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Partially. Maybe you can submit some of the statistics to the committee, if that's possible.

When I look at the 66 investigations, for instance, that may be in the backlog, is it safe to assume some are more serious than others? Are you prioritizing some over others, or is it first in, first out?

[Harriet Solloway]

It's a combination of both. We will not investigate anything that is not a big deal, so they're all big deals, to be clear.

In terms of prioritizing, it's not necessarily strictly first in, first out. A lot has to do with which investigators have capacity and what they are more specialized in. It's about managing everything all at once, so I don't have a strict rule of first in, first out, and in fact, it's not the case. Even in admissibility, I'm trying to work from both ends, so some people are receiving very timely responses and some people aren't, and I'm hoping we'll meet somewhere in the middle.

We have gained efficiencies. On the admissibility analysis side, I would have to go to the statistics, but I believe we completed more this year than we received in all of last year, but because our numbers are rising so rapidly, we're still falling behind. Yes, on submissions received, thus far in 2025 we've received 444 and we've completed 395 analyses, and all of last year, we received 419. We will certainly complete more this year than all of the ones we got in last year combined, but we're still going to fall behind, plus we have older cases that are still there.

Brian, do you want to add anything?

[Brian Radford]

Our rate of efficiency has increased every year. Last year, of the 419 files received, we completed 342, and as the commissioner indicated, this year we've completed 395 so far.

We're trying new ways to address cases as quickly as possible, and as the commissioner indicated, we're not just addressing old files in the backlog; we are addressing, on a weekly basis, new files that come in and at the same time the older files so that we can tackle as many as possible, as quickly as possible.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Very—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Be very brief.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

—briefly, could you give a quick status update on the task force that was founded in 2022?

[Harriet Solloway]

I don't know. My understanding, through the grapevine only, is that they've completed their report, but more than that, I couldn't tell you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Mr. Gasparro, but before you start, I'm going to mention that we do have a requirement at this committee that any documents or any responses promised are required within 21 working days, and they are to be sent to the clerk.

Mr. Gasparro, the time is yours. Please go ahead, sir.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you.

As I said to other witnesses, I want to thank you for your public service. Like one of my colleagues, I also have some experience at the municipal level dealing with integrity commissioners. Both of your CVs are quite impressive.

Can you explain what protections are currently in place for public servants who report wrongdoing?

[Harriet Solloway]

That's a very good question. Thank you for it.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.