Public Accounts committee  Thanks for the question. As I mentioned, 141 participants registered in these consultations, so our approach--and I'll let Caroline speak to the detail--was to determine, first of all, whether the personal information relating to these people was publicly available. The personal information was their name attached to their company name.

Public Accounts committee  They knew they were being recorded because at the outset of the consultation participants were told these proceedings were going to be recorded because we wanted to use their comments in writing our report. They were not told that the consultations were public. If they had been told that, we wouldn't have had the privacy issue that we had in this case.

Public Accounts committee  Thanks for the question. Mr. Chair, I think it probably comes down to a difference of view on the application of the Privacy Act. I do have Mr. Walsh's letter in front of me, and--

Public Accounts committee  Well, he says that the department “is concerned that providing the recordings to the Committee would put it in breach of the Privacy Act and liable to proceedings being brought against it under this Act”. As I understand it, he says that since there is no danger of proceedings being brought against us under this act, therefore we shouldn't be concerned.

Public Accounts committee  With the reason for any discrepancy and what we see as being deletions--

Public Accounts committee  The deputy minister is. I'm the associate, so it would be me in his absence.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  No. There were three sessions: one in December, one on January 15, and one between February 4 and 6. All of them were held with many industry representatives present, as well as many executives and others from the federal government. So there was a group.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, indeed. In fact, the staging of the consultations was posted on MERX, which is sort of a general information system that suppliers use. So it was an open invitation for diverse representatives of the industry who might have an interest to attend.

Public Accounts committee  Thanks for the question. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to turn to Ms. Payant to answer in detail. She was there for the duration of the sessions. I was there only for the introduction. I saw the large group and sort of kicked off the sessions. I understand there were several deck presentations made to the group.

Public Accounts committee  Chair, I can't speak to the discrepancy. What I can speak to is the fact that my staff made the deletions targeting the names. They then verified the deletions to ensure that it was just the names they had properly deleted. The information that came back to me was that it had been done correctly.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I also want to thank you for introducing my colleagues who are with me today. Thank you for the opportunity to explain PWGSC's actions regarding the audio recordings of our industry consultations on the Government Enterprise Network Services. By way of background, let me begin by outlining the origins of these consultations on which the audio recordings in question are based.

Public Accounts committee  I think it's primarily the job of our Office of Small and Medium Enterprises. We have an office that operates in Ottawa, in the national capital area, as well as offices across the country, in every province. This is a network that allows us to hear from businesses. Medium-sized enterprises go up to 500 employees, so that covers a good number of our suppliers.

Public Accounts committee  Typically, on that system, we inform suppliers of government buying opportunities. So it's us going to them with our intention to buy something.

Public Accounts committee  We have special mechanisms. There are different types of systems that can be used. One is called Professional Services Online, and there are other special avenues for gaining access to suppliers.