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ARCHIVED - RPP 2007-2008
Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
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SECTION IV: OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
Impact of the Federal Accountability Act
On December 12, 2006, the Parliament of Canada adopted Bill C-2, the Federal Accountability Act. The legislation amends several existing laws and proposes two new acts related to political accountability.
One of the statutes affected by passage of Bill C-2 is the Access to Information Act. The new law amends the Access to Information Act to extend its application to 15 institutions including Officers of Parliament, Crown corporations and foundations. Amendments also establish new exemptions or exclusions related to the 15 added entities.
By expanding application of the Access to Information Act, the Federal Accountability Act affects the Office of the Information Commissioner in two ways. First, the Office of the Information Commissioner must hire additional investigators and legal staff to prepare for an increased number of complaints that will result from new institutions being subject to the Access to Information Act. A short-term increase in workload is expected to occur due to pent-up demand for information from these institutions. Overall workload is expected to remain above current levels once this pent-up demand is released.
Second, the Federal Accountability Act will make the Office of the Information Commissioner subject to both the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. To comply with these laws, the Office of the Information Commissioner must create and fill new positions, including a director of information services and knowledge management, and various professional, clerical and administrative staff. In addition, new software and hardware will be needed to process access to information requests.
The Office of the Information Commissioner completed a business case and implementation plan to manage these changes and hired an interim director of information services and knowledge management through secondment in October 2006. However, specific funding and resource requirements will not be known until the Office of the Information Commissioner has analyzed the final wording of the Federal Accountability Act and coming-into-force dates for the new entities covered by the law. As a result, planned expenditures for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 do not cover any specific spending commitments to manage implementation of the Federal Accountability Act.
