Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise here this evening to address the government's response to the seventh report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates entitled: “Strengthening Parliamentary Scrutiny of Estimates and Supply”.
As part of its study, the committee heard testimony from academics, representatives of federal and provincial governments, independent consultants and other stakeholders. The committee should be praised for the variety of witnesses who appeared and for having taken such range of opinions into account.
Clearly, the government and the committee agree that parliamentarians must have access to the information they need to examine the estimates and the supply bills. This is a fundamental part of our political system and is key to guaranteeing to Parliament and to Canadians that public funds are being used efficiently and effectively.
In our parliamentary system, the government is responsible for developing its budgetary programs and policies, and Parliament is responsible for asking the government to account for its actions and the results of those actions. That is why, since we came to power, we have been working to ensure that Parliament has the information it needs to hold the government to account.
Each year, the Government of Canada prepares main estimates, and supplementary estimates as required, in support of its request to Parliament for authority to spend public funds. This request is formalized through the tabling of appropriation bills in Parliament.
The purpose of the supplementary estimates is to obtain the funding requested by departments and agencies to implement programs approved by the government. The supplementary estimates are also necessary to transfer the funds approved in the main estimates between organizations or within organizations, from one vote to another.
The supplementary estimates also serve to inform Parliament of changes made to the estimated cost of programs that are authorized by legislation other than a supply bill. The tabling of the main estimates and the supplementary estimates, which seek Parliament's authority to spend, is an important part of Parliament's monitoring of government spending plans.
We provide information not only to parliamentarians but also to Canadians. We have all heard the saying that information is power. Well, by making information accessible, we are also giving Canadians the power to hold their government accountable. In fact, Canada is a world leader in providing the public with accessible information.
We were one of the first countries to pass access to information legislation almost three decades ago. That is why, since our government has come to power, it has worked to open the windows and doors of government and to make information available to parliamentarians and all Canadians.
For example, in 2006, our government greatly broadened the scope of the Access to Information Act through the Federal Accountability Act, which contained the most significant changes to the Access to Information Act since it came into force in 1983.
More importantly, these changes extended the Access to Information Act to a larger number of public institutions.
Since April 1st 2007, the Canadian Wheat Board, five foundations and five officers of Parliament are subject to the provisions of the act.
The Federal Accountability Act added a total of 69 public institutions to the list of entities to which the act applies.
This means that some 250 public organizations are now subject to the Access to Information Act. The services provided by these institutions are very diverse and far-reaching, and they include many important activities and services for all Canadians.
However, to ensure greater transparency and increased accountability, we must not merely extend the act to more institutions.
Recently, we made it compulsory for all departments and organizations subject to the Access to Information Act to release summaries of their access to information requests. Each summary includes the request number, a summary of the full request and the number of pages disclosed.
I am pleased to say that departments, organizations and crown corporations are complying with this new requirement.
Over the past year, we also published thousands of information packages and we posted them online.
We sort of give access to a large storehouse of useful information which, until recently, was diligently collected and stored, just like our grandmothers' silverware.
The Government of Canada produces and collects data in areas such as health, the environment, agriculture and natural resources.
The purpose of open data is to give free access to machine readable data through portals, metadata and research tools, so that jurisdictions, citizens, volunteer organizations and the private sector can reuse them in new and original forms. The doors are now open and the possibilities are really very exciting.
In March 2011, we launched the Open Data Portal pilot project. This is a single desk providing access to federal government data that can be downloaded freely by Canadian citizens, researchers, volunteer organizations and private sector businesses.
This initiative is the result of a collaborative effort between the Government of Canada's departments and organizations to provide access to data generated by the government which can be used by citizens, businesses and communities for their own purposes.
These information packages deal with various issues, including construction permits, wait times for elective surgery, polluting emissions or border wait time.
For example, Statistics Canada provided its community-level health profiles, as well as 2001, 2006 and 2011 census data, as well as socio-economic and geographic data.
Moreover, in accordance with the spirit of our open government initiative, Statistics Canada stopped charging users for access to all its data in 2012.
Environment Canada provided data about fish stocks and freshwater quality indicator data from the Canadian environmental sustainability indicators program.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency provided data on projects approved by the agency since 1995.
Health Canada posted data on licensed natural health products and authorization dates for all drugs that have received a notice of compliance since 1994. The department has also published information about the suspected adverse reactions to health products.
Industry Canada provided data on broadband coverage and the technical and administrative frequency list that contains data on radio system frequencies.
Treasury Board Secretariat provided data on financial expenditures of departments and agencies, 2011-12 main estimates tables, and the public service employee survey data for 2008 through 2011.
We are proud that our open data portal is constantly evolving and we continue to add new data sets every month.
To make the portal even more effective, it is important that we bear in mind business people and innovators, and that we work with them to transform this raw data into practical applications to be used by all Canadians and to stimulate innovation and economic growth.
For example, at MétéoMédia, updated meteorological observations and advanced modelling provided by Environment Canada are used to provide radar images of the weather from coast to coast.
There are numerous other examples of Canadians with imagination who create and market applications using our government's data. They give us an idea of the trade and research opportunities available through the rapid use of government data by members of the public. And the major advantage of the portal is that it makes all this data accessible at a single location.
More government data can therefore be adapted for various uses. Over the past year, some 273,000 data sets from 21 departments and agencies have been published, and they can be downloaded free of charge—I would note—from the government's open data portal. This has become a global trend.
The United Kingdom, for example, intends to publish the graduation rates of every school. In health care, there are plans to publish the cancer care performance of general practitioners. This is incredibly powerful. Access to this information enables citizens and consumers to make informed decisions about essential aspects of their lives. This gives them choices, and the fact that they have choices means that public services, such as health care and education, will have to be more accountable, which will promote innovation and improved service.
I am talking here about the power to make information available to everyone, but there is more. This is also a tool to stimulate economic growth and long-term prosperity. The European Commission estimates that the open data revolution could mean up to $55 billion a year in economic spinoffs for the continent.
It is therefore not surprising that British MP Francis Maude, Minister of the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, has described data as the new basic resource, the new raw material of the 21st century.
We in Canada are well aware of the importance of capitalizing on resources. The development of our resources—our natural resources—has helped make Canada one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
As we advance into the 21st century, the key to our prosperity will lie in our human capital and our potential for innovation.
In this context, data will be Canada's new resource, and the development of that resource will support the goals of the government's economic action plan 2012.
The goal of our plan is to reinforce and consolidate the corporate sector and to make it our job creation driver—