Evidence of meeting #65 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gauvin.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
I haven't finished my question, Mr. Alberti.
Is there not a standing rule, a maximum amount of time you have to be able to respond when you're asked for a legal opinion?
4:25 p.m.
Legal Services, Department of Justice, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Sir, I only found out about the delay here, a short while ago, when I saw the file following an access to information request. When I was first asked to work on the case, I was not even told that it had already been delayed. The deadline for processing a file applies to the client, and not to legal services.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
I've simply asked Mr. Alberti if there is a standard in the justice department for when they're to respond to requests. That was my question.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Mr. Alberti, that seems to be a pretty straightforward question. Is there a standard rule or isn't there, and what is it?
4:25 p.m.
Legal Services, Department of Justice, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
No, it depends on our workload. We have to prioritize the cases we are working on.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
I'm under the impression that there's a—
4:25 p.m.
Legal Services, Department of Justice, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Mr. Estabrooks just said something. When he gave me the file, he told me he couldn't care less about it, because he was on the point of retiring.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
So is there no standard, under legislation, of 30 days?
4:30 p.m.
Legal Services, Department of Justice, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The deadline you are referring to is the one which applies to the Access to Information Office under the act. If the file had been processed the way it should have been by the Access to Information Office, we would have been told that a notice of prorogation had been sent to the applicant and we probably would have taken a closer look at the delays. At no time was there any attempt to stall or block the release of a document. This file was just one of many I was working on.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Mr. Lavoie, could you tell me who specifically was responsible for sending this document to Mr. Gauvin prior to the release of it?
4:30 p.m.
Superintendent (Retired), Royal Canadian Mounted Police
I would think it was.... In my case, a request would be sent to them and to the CHRO to see if they had any last-minute comments. It was not for them to do the report or do our work; it was to identify any concerns they may have had before we actually went out with it.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
That was your responsibility, though.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
The last time my colleague Mr. Williams was questioning you on that, at first you said that was normal, and then you mentioned that it was unusual. Is that usual practice?
4:30 p.m.
Superintendent (Retired), Royal Canadian Mounted Police
As I recall, I didn't say it was normal. I did say it was unusual. But this particular case was very unusual also.
When we had a sensitive case, it wasn't out of the ordinary to send it to the policy centre for last-minute comments to be sure nothing was being released that shouldn't be released.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Mr. Estabrooks, there seem to be a lot of unusual things here, and I want to get your comment on them. Mr. Alberti was saying that it was delayed—if I go by the math of months—by about four months. Then he handled it for another five months. You mentioned earlier that this one took an extensive amount of time. That's why it drew your attention to it. What else was atypical in the process of this ATIP request ?
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:30 p.m.
As an Individual
Well, it was delayed by 69 days before I received it, which is not usually that normal. It took 69 days before I looked at it. I looked at it, I believe, on October 8, or something like that. I can give you the dates exactly. I looked at it. It took me a day and a half to review it. And I think it was hand-delivered to Mr. Alberti on the 13th. It was delivered on the 13th, because I have an e-mail.
It says, “I hand-delivered the proposed release package to Louis Alberti at 11 o'clock”. This is the on the 13th.“He advised me that he will not be able to look at the package for at least two weeks because of his case load. Probably the first week of November he will contact you directly.”
And I had addressed that to Superintendent Roy. It was delayed, to start with.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Did you get a communication back within two weeks from Mr. Alberti's office?
4:30 p.m.
As an Individual
I don't believe so. I talked to Louis in the hall a couple of times over the space of months. I don't know.
4:30 p.m.
As an Individual
But I don't think there was a formal—I had nothing formal back. There are some notations on the ATIP flow screen, different dates it was requested—when would it be down? And I believe there was a conversation from an ATI investigator. A lady had phoned Mr. Alberti to question him on when the date was.
