Information & Ethics committee  We don't have a corporate secretariat.

Information & Ethics committee  I could just add that if you look at that performance report you referred to earlier, there are audited financial statements. The officers of Parliament have all agreed that they will have their annual financial statements audited by the Auditor General. I think we're the only in

Information & Ethics committee  On the actual utilization, I think it was 57.

Information & Ethics committee  It's 78.

Information & Ethics committee  We're not asking for approval for the funds for that in this round of estimates.

Information & Ethics committee  It would only be if we came back for that by way of supplementaries. We're thinking we will have enough to cover that one-time cost because of the delay in actually hiring the new folks.

Information & Ethics committee  Hiding the existence of a document requested under the Access to Information Act is an offence under the statute.

Information & Ethics committee  If in the course of an investigation we determine there's reasonable basis to believe that an offence has been committed, our obligation is to refer that matter to the Attorney General. But it is a matter that any individual can refer to policing authorities.

Information & Ethics committee  We try to be blind to the motives or identities of our complainants, for obvious reasons. We will not speed up an investigation because of partisan political pressure; we will not slow down an investigation because of partisan political pressure. I think this Parliament would exp

Information & Ethics committee  The most-used exemption is the protection of personal privacy. It's a mandatory exemption. Another mandatory exemption is information provided in confidence by other governments. Then there are injury test exemptions such as injury to federal-provincial relations, injury to inter

Information & Ethics committee  There is no way that the office either agrees or disagrees with a proposition put forward by a complainant until we've investigated. Every complainant that comes to us says there is no possible reason there should be secrecy, and the government institution says there's every reas

Information & Ethics committee  If I can follow up, you also asked about the form of the report. The statute requires us at the end of an investigation to report the results and the basis for them to the individual who made the complaint, to the government institution against which the complaint was made, and t

Information & Ethics committee  The test is actually set out in the statute. I'll turn to section 39: in the opinion of the Commissioner, the matter is of such urgency or importance that a report thereof should not be deferred until the time provided for transmission of the next annual report

Information & Ethics committee  I think this committee can take credit for it.

Information & Ethics committee  If I may just add, I think we're going to be recommending to the Treasury Board folks that as part of the evaluative process, they try to include all of the committees that made recommendations about the panel, including this committee, the public accounts committee and, I think,