Finance committee  I think it would be ideal if you were to say there were six people who earn over this amount in a certain union. I don't think you have to mention them. I think the members, or indeed the public, because there is that argument about tax expenditures, get an idea of what's happe

Finance committee  Thank you for that example, honourable member. That is the custom in some provinces, or it's the law in some provinces. One way, I think, to further amend this bill would be to raise the threshold. I don't think anybody really has a salary of $5,000 these days, but it could be ra

Finance committee  Thank you for the question, sir. I will answer in light of the fact that amendments were proposed that I believe would diminish privacy infringements. With respect to other parts of the bill, I think that requiring the names of all individuals earning or receiving more than $5,

Finance committee  Not to my knowledge, but I will get back to you in writing.

Finance committee  I'll conclude with the international level, where legislation in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia have taken a similarly limited approach to union transparency when it comes to personal information, publicly disclosing the salaries of only a few top union offici

Finance committee  Thank you very much, honourable members. Transparency and accountability, we know, are essential features of good governance and critical elements of an effective and robust democracy. However, as the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, I must say that the extent of public disclosur

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try to respond to those two questions. Yes, I read about the reporting burdens described by, I think, the previous Auditor General. If it's any consolation, the burden on small entities to report to the federal government is already huge. Non-aboriginal small organizations

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I haven't personally looked at that before, but perhaps the general counsel has. I haven't looked at that part of the Indian Act to see how....

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly to any of us in the situation of having a lot of our personal dealings being publicized because of the jobs we—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can understand that. We have a situation in which a series of band individuals then have their earnings and/or total remuneration being looked at by all Canadians. I think this comes back to the first question I suggested to you: is this justifiable in a reasonable and democra

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not leaning in any direction except that of privacy, and I don't have all the facts; you have all the facts. You're listening to all the witnesses. Some of you have intimate and personal knowledge of what's happening in aboriginal governance. I'm just suggesting to you tha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly there is an obligation, both under the Privacy Act and under PIPEDA, that personal information about individuals has to be accurate and up to date. That's a basic tenet of privacy protection.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the attributions or the nomenclature used have to reflect accurately what kind of personal information it is. So to the extent that you can be more precise, I think that's ideal. But you're down to actual wording, so I can't really pronounce on it. Are you saying “total

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Honourable member, we have had complaints to our office over the years about individual members of first nations not getting the information from the band council. If I look over the last three years, we've had about 10 complaints by members of first nations against the administr

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start, and perhaps the general counsel will have a more acute observation. I think there is a general tendency towards sync, from what we can find out. The one difference—and it's of interest only to lawyers who are really into this kind of thing—is that in the Province of