About

44th Parliament, 1st Session
(November 22, 2021 - Present)
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The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics studies and reports on matters referred to it by the House of Commons, or on topics the Committee itself chooses to examine under its mandate. It is a permanent committee established by the Standing Orders of the House of Commons. Bills, departmental activities and spending, and other matters related to the general subject matter of the Committee may be referred to it.

Under Standing Order 108(3)(h), the Committee’s mandate is to study matters related to reports of the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner pursuant to the Conflict of Interest Act (matters related to the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons are studied by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs). The Committee can also study any legislation or regulation or propose initiatives that relate to access to information and privacy and to ethical standards relating to public office holders.

Detailed information on the role and powers of committees may be found in Our Procedure and in Chapter XIII of the Standing Orders of the House of Commons.

The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics was established by an agreement of all parties represented in the House of Commons at the beginning of the 1st Session of the 38th Parliament. It held its first meeting in October 2004. On December 14, 2004, the House of Commons concurred in the 20th report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which established the Committee’s mandate.
In the execution of its functions, each committee is normally assisted by a committee clerk, an analyst and a committee assistant. Occasional assistance is also provided by legislative clerks and lawyers from the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel. All of these individuals are non-partisan and serve all members of the committee and representatives of all parties equally.

Committee Clerk

The clerk performs his or her duties and responsibilities under the direction of the committee and its Chair. As an expert in the rules of the House of Commons, the clerk may be requested to give advice to the Chair and members of the committee should a question of procedure arise. The clerk is the coordinator, organizer and liaison officer for the committee and as such will be in frequent contact with members’ staff. He or she is also responsible for inviting witnesses and to deal with all the details regarding their appearance before the committee.

Committee Assistant

The committee assistant provides a wide range of specialized administrative services for the organization of committee meetings and the publishing of documents on the committee’s Website. The committee assistant works with the clerk to meet the needs of the committee.

Committee Analyst

The Library of Parliament’s analysts provide authoritative, substantive, and timely research, analysis and information to all members of the Committee. They are part of the Committee’s institutional memory and are a unique resource for parliamentarians. Supported by research librarians, the analyst works individually or in multidisciplinary teams.

Analysts can prepare: briefing notes on the subjects being examined; detailed study plans; lists of proposed witnesses; analyses of an issue with a list of suggested questions; background papers; draft reports; news releases; and/or formal correspondence. Analysts with legal training can assist the Committee regarding any substantive issues that may arise during the consideration of bills.

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE AS REQUIRED

Parliamentary Counsel

Within the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, Parliamentary Counsel (Legislation) are available to assist Members who are not in Cabinet in the preparation of private Members’ bills or of amendments to Government bills or others.

At various stages of the legislative process, Members may propose amendments to bills. Amendments may first be proposed at the Committee Stage, during a committee’s clause-by-clause review of a bill. Amendments may also be proposed at the Report Stage, once a bill returns to the House.

Once a bill is sent to Committee, the clerk of the Committee provides the name of the Parliamentary Counsel (Legislation) responsible for the drafting of the amendments for a particular bill to the Members.

Legislative Clerk

The legislative clerk serves all members of the Committee as a specialist of the process by which a bill becomes law. They are available to give, upon request from Members and their staff, advice on the admissibility of amendments when bills are referred to Committee. The legislative clerk organizes the amendments into packages for committee stage, reviews all the committee amendments for procedural admissibility and prepares draft rulings for the Chair. During clause-by-clause consideration of bills in committee, a legislative clerk is in attendance to assist the committee concerning any procedural issues that may arise. The legislative clerk can also provide Members with advice regarding the procedural admissibility of Report Stage amendments. When a bill is sent to committee, the clerk of the committee provides to the Members the name of the legislative clerk assigned to the bill.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO)

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has a mandate to support Parliament and parliamentarians in holding the government to account for the good stewardship of public resources. The Federal Accountability Act of 2006 mandates the PBO to provide independent analysis to the Senate and to the House of Commons regarding the state of the nation’s finances, the government estimates and trends in the national economy.

The enabling legislation also provides the PBO with a mandate to provide analytical support to any committee during its consideration of the estimates, as well as provide advice to any Member of Parliament regarding the financial cost of proposals.

Further information on the PBO may be found at: http://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/

Based on its mandate to study matters related to the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner pursuant to the Conflict of Interest Act, the Committee has carried out, among other things, the following activities over the past five years:
  • study to review the safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest in federal government expenditure policies;
  • adoption of a motion to study the policies, procedures, and practices surrounding ethical conduct and avoidance of conflicts of interest within the Prime Minister's Office;
  • study on a possible reform of the national identity system;
  • adoption of a motion to study the impacts of facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence;
  • briefing with the Information Commissioner of Canada;
  • briefing with the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada;
  • report entitled Privacy and Digital Government Services;
  • report on the International Grand Committee on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy;
  • study on ethical aspects of artificial intelligence and algorithms;
  • study on election advertising on YouTube;
  • study on the joint Investigation of Facebook by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia;
  • report entitled Democracy Under Threat: Risks and Solutions in the Era of Disinformation and Data Monopoly;
  • report entitled Addressing Digital Privacy Vulnerabilities and Potential Threats to Canada's Democratic Electoral Process;
  • report entitled The Protection of Net Neutrality in Canada;
  • report entitled Towards Privacy by Design: Review of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act;
  • study on the Conflict of Interest Act; • study on the report of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner entitled “The Trudeau Report”;
  • report entitled Protecting Canadians' Privacy at the U.S. Border;
  • review of Bill C-58, An Act to amend the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts;
  • report entitled Safeguarding Canada's National Security While Protecting Canadians' Privacy Rights: Review of the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act (SCISA);
  • report entitled Review of the Access to Information Act;
  • report entitled Protecting the Privacy of Canadians: Review of the Privacy Act;
  • study on the transfer of information to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS);
  • study of the annual reports and estimates of various commissioners’ offices; and
  • study of key appointments to various commissioners’ offices.
Annual reports, special reports to Parliament and other relevant publications produced by the various commissioners’ offices are available on their websites:
  • Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
  • Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  • Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada
  • Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner