moved:
That, in accordance with section 54(1) of the act to extend the present laws of Canada that provide access to information under the control of the Government of Canada, Chapter A-1 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, this House approve the appointment of the Hon. John M. Reid, P.C., as Information Commissioner.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take these few moments today to submit to the House the candidacy of the Hon. John Mr. Reid for the position of Information Commissioner.
The Hon. John Reid, a native of Fort Frances, Ontario, studied at St. Paul's College, at the University of Manitoba, and at the University of Toronto. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1965, and again in 1968, 1972, 1974, 1979 and 1980. He was parliamentary secretary to the President of the Privy Council in 1972 and became Minister of State for Federal-Provincial Relations on November 24, 1978.
For a number of years, he worked for a group well known to all parliamentarians, the Company of Young Canadians, to which he gave distinguished service.
Far more important in today's context is the fact that, during his time here, the Hon. John Reid was one of those in favour of our country's having campaign expenses legislation. He did excellent work in support of that cause. Many credit him for the existence of certain components of the legislation we now have in this area.
Later, he worked along with another former MP, Alfred Hales, and others, on the creation of an access to information system to allow the Canadian public to gain a greater knowledge of this country's government machinery.
The position of information commissioner, which we are about to fill, is not an easy one. It requires that an individual be dedicated to the ongoing development of democratic practices. It also requires that one be willing and able to express strong opinion, and yet have an excellent knowledge of the inner workings of government and of the public service.
The position was held, until recently, by Dr. John Grace. His term, as I understand it, expired on April 30, 1998, just a few days ago. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. John Grace for the work that he did as information commissioner.
Under the Access to Information Act, 1983, Canadians have a broad legal right of access to information recorded in any form and controlled by most federal institutions, but subject to limited and specific exemptions.
The information commissioner is a very special ombudsman appointed by parliament to investigate complaints about the refusal to provide information pursuant to the act. The commissioner's priorities are: to convince government to release information informally, without the need to resort to legal proceedings or the rigour of the courts; to follow, where possible, a non-adversarial approach; to resolve complaints in a fair, equitable and expeditious manner; and to ensure that response deadlines are consistently respected across government.
The position requires experience in managing at the senior executive level and in innovating and leading the management of a multidisciplinary team on sensitive issues in a public environment.
In addition to possessing a thorough knowledge of the Access to Information Act, and of course an understanding of the rules of natural justice and fairness, the commissioner must have an extensive understanding of the principles of public administration, current government structure, the internal government decision making process, the complexities of federal and provincial jurisdictions and government security requirements.
The government and I believe that the Hon. John Reid has the unusual kind of qualities necessary to achieve the desired result of providing information to members of parliament and the public, to respect the limitations that I have just described and to recognize the Privacy Act and the counterweight that it provides where appropriate and necessary.
In this regard I thank my colleagues in the House who brought the candidacy of the honourable John Reid to my attention and to the attention of the government. Even though the honourable Mr. Reid was a member of a Liberal government in the past and sat as a member of parliament, I think the fact that his candidacy was brought to the attention of the government by members of other parties in the House speaks very highly to his qualifications.
I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg Transcona and the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough for drawing his name to the attention of the government. Of course the government officially proposes the candidacy of an individual, which is what I am doing and what the government has done through the authority of the Prime Minister. Now I am seeking the consent of the House to have this nomination ratified.
The honourable Mr. Reid is an historian by training. As I said a while ago, he was a member of the House for a number of years. His brother, Patrick Reid, served for many years and was the dean of the Ontario legislature at the time that I sat at Queen's Park many years ago, so long ago that I even had hair in those days.