//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat (Pontiac, NDP): (1610)[English]Thank you, Mr. Chair.Thank you, Madame Legault, for being here. I would tend to agree. I think Canadians would find it pretty bizarre that something that they're supporting with their taxes, something that is theirs, which is public information, needs to be wrestled out of the government with high fees or fees that may be unreasonable.Not too long ago, the Conservative government did announce that it might consider or would consider making cabinet confidence subject to review of the Information Commissioner. Has that happened?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949123394912439491253949126PatMartinWinnipeg CentreSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1610)[English]No.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949127MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (1610)[English]On the cabinet confidence redacting, are you even allowed to study the issue?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949128SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1610)[English]Yes. People can complain to our office. With cabinet confidences, the only thing we see is a schedule, a description of the records. We don't have the ability to review the records.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949129MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (1610)[English]Is it possible to determine if those cabinet confidence redactions have increased in number in the last couple of years? Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949130SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1610)[English]I would have to get back to you on the number of complaints for cabinet confidences. I can give you statistics on that. The government has changed its process in the summer of 2013 in terms of how it's processing the requests for the identified cabinet confidences. This is something we're following very closely, but we don't have enough data yet to see any trends. Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949131MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (1610)[English]Well, I would definitely be interested to know. I'd also be interested to know how much the $1,300 per request is actually due to cabinet confidence redaction, in some of the costs. But I understand you probably can't answer that question right now.Another thing that they promised was to ensure that all exemptions from the disclosure of government information are justified only on the basis of the harm or injury that would result from disclosure, not blanket exemption rules. Has that also happened?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-201539491323949133SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1610)[English] No.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949134MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (1610)[English]In your opinion, would that be ideal?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949135SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1610)[English]In most instances, that test is certainly what's considered to be the best in terms of international norms. There are certain circumstances where that's not appropriate, but they're much more limited than what we have now.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949136MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/71660TedHsuTed-HsuKingston and the IslandsLiberal CaucusOntario//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/HsuTed_Lib.jpgInterventionMr. Ted Hsu: (1710)[English]Okay, thank you.I understand that your office is not allowed to review any access to information complaints regarding redactions that are deemed to be cabinet confidences. Is that a hindrance to you in terms of fulfilling your mandate?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-201539493963949397SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1710)[English]That answer is, it's correct. I cannot review cabinet confidences. Do I believe that it's a hindrance to independent oversight of government decisions on disclosure of information? Yes.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949398TedHsuKingston and the IslandsTedHsuKingston and the Islands//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/71660TedHsuTed-HsuKingston and the IslandsLiberal CaucusOntario//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/HsuTed_Lib.jpgInterventionMr. Ted Hsu: (1710)[English]Thank you.Are there any other methods that your office would like to implement that Parliament could assist you with to reduce delays in reviewing redactions?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-201539493993949400SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1710)[English]Well, we are in the process of finalizing our recommendations that we will table in Parliament, which will be extremely comprehensive because we have done a very extensive review of international jurisdictions and national norms. We will table that in January when the House resumes, and it will be very comprehensive.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949401TedHsuKingston and the IslandsTedHsuKingston and the Islands//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/71660TedHsuTed-HsuKingston and the IslandsLiberal CaucusOntario//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/HsuTed_Lib.jpgInterventionMr. Ted Hsu: (1715)[English]Perhaps I can ask the question in a different way.If your budget were not increased—and we've heard about the pressures on your budget—what might you have to cut in terms of services to Canadians?Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-201539494023949403SuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanneLegaultSuzanne-LegaultInterventionMs. Suzanne Legault: (1715)[English]I provide one service. I do investigations on complaints from people who are not satisfied with the government decisions on disclosure. What will happen is this. I now have a delay of about six to seven months, and that delay, before I can assign a file to an investigator, will increase because the number of investigators will decrease.Cabinet confidencesGovernment accountabilityOffice of the Information Commissioner of CanadaSupplementary estimates (B) 2014-20153949404TedHsuKingston and the IslandsTedHsuKingston and the Islands//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (0910)[Translation]I am going to move on to another question.A letter signed on February 24, 2012, by Mr. Fonberg, Deputy Minister of National Defence, and Mr. Guimond, Deputy Minister of PWGSC, states that "some components of this risk analysis may not have been made available to the OAG for reasons of Cabinet confidence".Is it common practice for ministers not to provide you with information and to claim reasons of cabinet confidence?Cabinet confidencesChapter 2. Replacing Canada’s Fighter Jets of the Spring 2012 Report of the Auditor General of CanadaClassified documentsGovernment accountabilityGovernment contractsJoint Strike Fighter F-35 aircraft288088028808812880882MichaelFergusonMichaelFergusonMichaelFergusonMichael-FergusonInterventionMr. Michael Ferguson: (0910)[English] Certainly we don't have access to.... We will get access, for example, to memorandums to cabinet, but we have an agreement about what we do and do not disclose when we're looking at that type of information. We felt we had access to enough information in this report that we could still draw our conclusions. In fact our legislation requires us to bring it to the attention of Parliament if we feel in any instance that we do not receive information we need to receive. We felt we received all of the information we needed. Some of it would have been in memorandums to cabinet. We have to be very careful about how we refer to that type of informationThe other point I want to make in terms of your question is that the types of analysis and things we were looking for were analysis we felt should have existed in departmental documents. They're not analysis you would wait until you're preparing a memorandum to cabinet to actually prepare. We would have expected to see those types of analysis in a format that was not cabinet confidential. Cabinet confidencesChapter 2. Replacing Canada’s Fighter Jets of the Spring 2012 Report of the Auditor General of CanadaClassified documentsGovernment accountabilityGovernment contractsJoint Strike Fighter F-35 aircraft2880883288088428808852880886MathieuRavignatPontiacMathieuRavignatPontiac//www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/318MathieuRavignatMathieu-RavignatPontiacNew Democratic Party CaucusQuebec//www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Parliamentarians/Images/OfficialMPPhotos/41/RavignatMathieu_NDP.jpgInterventionMr. Mathieu Ravignat: (0915)[English]Just to be clear, there was certain information that was withheld by the cabinet that should have been in the different ministries and accessible to you?Cabinet confidencesChapter 2. Replacing Canada’s Fighter Jets of the Spring 2012 Report of the Auditor General of CanadaClassified documentsGovernment accountabilityGovernment contractsJoint Strike Fighter F-35 aircraft2880887MichaelFergusonDavidChristophersonHamilton CentreINTERVENTIONParliament and SessionDiscussed TopicProcedural TermCommitteePerson SpeakingProvince / TerritoryCaucusParticipation TypeSearchResults per pageOrder byTarget search languageSide by SideMaximum returned rowsPagePUBLICATION TYPE