Refine by MP, party, committee, province, or result type.
Information & Ethics committee There were a number of institutions—like CBC, Canada Post, the National Arts Centre and a number of others—that came under the act. The courts, many agencies of Parliament, the House of Commons, the Senate and so on all became subject to the act, and CBC was on top of that. That
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee Exactly.
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee I don't have any statistics to see how often...or what guidelines the IC has given herself. As to how to use this power, I have a sense—and it's an opinion—that she's acted in a timid fashion, maybe as she should, so that people could begin to understand. Basically, using a power
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee Thank you very much.
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee My answer to you for that question, which I've published in my Macdonald-Laurier Institute article, is that the OIC, first and foremost, would be given a one-year limit to decide on the given complaint—one year. If within one year they haven't decided or they haven't completed it
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee Last year, the 145,000 requests being made basically brought the system to a halt. I don't know if the significant increase in complaints all result from the same.... They probably do. Now the Information Commissioner has 10,000 complaints from last year, so something is amiss.
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee I think it will substantially reduce this sudden increase, both in complaints and requests, and have a beneficial impact. When I say it increased by 52% this year, before this year there were still a high number. Removing them from it will probably bring the volume of requests mo
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee I think the OIC has a big enough job to investigate complaints, and there are a sufficient number of them, about 6,000. Given its backlog, it wants to concentrate, to the greatest extent possible, all of its resources on investigating these. I don't see the need to provide the In
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee The remedy is with the Information Commissioner. You must have the ability to put a request in, and if your request comes as part of a pattern in a given department on a given subject with a given number of requests, then the Information Commissioner should have the ability to sa
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee More than any other, section 20 is the one that has been critically examined by the courts, which have considered all possible interpretations. The act contains a mechanism for handling third party information. If a request involves information provided to the department by a thi
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee I think it's a mixture of the two. The courts know and respect the ultimate purpose of the Access to Information Act, which is to make information public. However, the rights of third parties must be respected and certain secrets, including trade secrets, must be protected. The
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee There are still some who are exempt, but not many. Over the past 10 years, more and more public organizations, including the CBC and Canada Post, have become subject to it. And, as you know, parts of the House of Commons, the Senate and the courts are now subject to the act. The
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee Not at the moment. It's not something that I have paid particular attention to. I've come to live with this situation and have come to expect that some of those are excluded from disclosure. However, if you look at the access regime as being allegedly universal, then I would te
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee I don't think so. I would say the problem is universal. In Canada, it's the same for a firm as it is for a public servant. Not all requests a public servant receives are equally important or of equal priority. Some emails are just friendly communications, depending on the situati
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau
Information & Ethics committee Annual seminars in all departments would remind them that one of their legal responsibilities is to comply with the Access to Information Act, which has quasi-constitutional value. Public servants have a duty to the public, who pay their salaries. It was Parliament that wanted t
October 24th, 2022Committee meeting
Col (Ret'd) Michel Drapeau