Evidence of meeting #106 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was charter.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
No, not to amend at this point, but to the officials, can you speak to the impact of what Mr. Dubé is suggesting?
Director General, Strategic Policy, Planning and Partnerships, Communications Security Establishment
In terms of ministerial directives, there are some that have been made publicly available and we're always looking.... In fact, the legislation reflects some of the things that used to be in ministerial directives and now will be transparent and enshrined in legislation, but there are some ministerial directives that do include classified information and would reveal capabilities of Canada to our adversaries.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
To Mr. Dubé's point about changing it to say that it's excluding any that would impact national security...?
Director General, Strategic Policy, Planning and Partnerships, Communications Security Establishment
Do you want to speak to it, John?
Director General, National Security Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I'm not sure if the Canada Gazette is the right vehicle to do that. The Gazette is usually used for advertising regulatory change and consulting Canadians in that way on change about to come.
Earlier on, there were amendments to ensure that NSIRA would be looking at and reviewing all ministerial directions. In the annual report of NSIRA, you would already see changes and any new ministerial directions that way. From that point of view, I'm not sure if the amendment is required.
Conservative
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC
Just as a follow-up, for any changes that were made to NSIRA, would they be mandated with reporting back to the public or is that just something that could potentially happen?
Director General, National Security Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I would have to pull out the amendment, but I believe that there would be a requirement that in their annual report there would be some commentary on that finding.
NDP
Director General, National Security Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
They would be asked to review all new ministerial directions and any changes to existing ministerial directions.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC
But the report could.... It's at their discretion at the end of the day as to whether they...?
Director General, National Security Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I'd have to pull out the amendment. I thought there was a requirement. There certainly would be an expectation that they would comment on that work in their annual report.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC
If I may ask, Chair—and I should know this, but I don't off the top of my head—I believe the minister has published some ministerial directives: in what forum is that usually done?
Director General, National Security Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
More recently, it would be just normally through a web release of a media relations product. Certainly, in the past it has been through access to information requests, but, obviously, there's certainly a new interest in being more proactive in explaining to Canadians ministerial directions.
Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC
—some points on part of the answers I just received?
There doesn't really seem to be a clear precedent for where it would be published. I think that, given that the Gazette does deal with.... It's not regulatory change, but in some ways it could be seen as similar. In the absence of that, I think it's difficult to legislate what's going to appear on a minister's website or something like that. Again, I can't amend my own amendment. I'm somewhat disappointed that there's no appetite to try to make it more palatable, to at least codify what the minister says he wants to do.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you, Mr. Dubé.
Is there any other debate?
(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Now we have LIB-28.
Mr. Spengemann.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
This goes back to the question of the Public Service Employment Act and the mobility of federal civil servants. LIB-28 and LIB-29, in fact, go together. They are both technical amendments that require strictly the removal of certain provisions that would leave residual or duplicative provisions under the proposed CSE act. It's a technical amendment that simply removes those and, again, renders the Public Service Employment Act applicable to the federal civil servants who previously would have been governed by the proposed CSE act.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you, Mr. Spengemann.
Is there any debate?
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Next is LIB-29.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, the very same explanation applies to LIB-29.
