Information & Ethics committee  I am familiar with the Newfoundland regime that is now in place. It hasn't been there that long. I don't want to be disparaging of Newfoundland and Labrador, in the context of its being a much smaller community, if I could put it that way, in terms of volume. What I recommended

Information & Ethics committee  I think it should go to the Federal Court as an independent judicial review. As I said earlier in my response to another member, I wouldn't want to be the minister who has to exercise that veto because there's no way I'll ever be able to explain it properly, or defend it politica

Information & Ethics committee  That's right. In that kind of context I have some concerns about order-making powers by the commissioner to Parliament. You have a creature of Parliament now ordering Parliament. For parliamentary privilege, I think you'd have to set up in that separate part of the statute an ind

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, in my view, you, the accountability is already stated in the statute in terms of delegations that take place and the arm's-length relationship between the minister and the ATIP coordinator. That's been a long-standing practice. We also have the Information Commissioner

Information & Ethics committee  I support the recommendation as to the level of funding, the composition of boards, and that sort of thing. I leave that to her to argue for. The principle is this: follow the money. It's one that the Auditor General doesn't hesitate to do. Is government business being transact

Information & Ethics committee  These are the bodies that, on the one hand, pass legislation, and on the other, interprets it over time. They're large administrations. I'm a former secretary to the Board of Internal Economy, still bound by my oath of secrecy and so I can't go into any great detail, but I can t

Information & Ethics committee  Exclusion means, at least in the current statute, means that it's just not available—not even for review. Whoever claims it to be an exclusion is absolute, and therein lies the flaw. I have no assurance as a Canadian citizen that this is being done properly. I don't mean being d

Information & Ethics committee  It does worry me. If I were a minister, the last power I would want would be a power to veto an access to information request. This would undermine the independence of the officials to whom the power has been delegated. I think there would even be a conflict of interest in a del

Information & Ethics committee  I completely agree that a considerable share of cabinet documents, especially those involving discussions between ministers, must remain confidential in our system, which is based on the Westminster model. However, what I deplore—and I believe the current commissioner deplores i

Information & Ethics committee  The $5 was worth $12 in 1983, if you factor in inflation. Over the years we've gone from $12 to $5. In 2009 I advocated abolishing the fee. I don't see it as a deterrent to vexatious and frivolous requests. You can address that by amending the legislation to deal with vexatious

Information & Ethics committee  Just briefly, Mr. Chair, thank you. To respond to your question, I can say, as a former commissioner, that I never saw the problem that way. The minister delegates in an independent manner. I don't recall any particular report mentioning that there was a problem in this area. T

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, 13 years.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your invitation, Mr. Chair. I'm delighted to be with you this morning, and particularly pleased that my tenure as Information Commissioner of Canada, and in the House of Commons, is remembered here. I have a very brief overview of the recomm