Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Information & Ethics committee  In 2005, the overall spending was $2.23 million.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  In fact, we are exchanging “lessons learned” with departments across town. The ATIP experts in all departments work together to make sure that best practices are being implemented across government. The issue is that we have our own obligations, given the international mandate that we have to pursue.

Information & Ethics committee  There are two things I would like to stress. First, we expect that the commissioner's report for the current fiscal year will be a bad report, given that we need time to put in place the initiatives that I have talked about. But unless there is a significant unforeseen increase in demand, we are on the right track.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, in 2005-06.

Information & Ethics committee  I've been the associate deputy minister since June 1 last year. I don't have a team per se; I have my office and four assistants on my staff.

Information & Ethics committee  Unfortunately, the only thing I can do is to observe the increase. In terms of why there was an increase, there may be multiple reasons why Canadians decided to proceed through that route instead of any other means available to them.

Information & Ethics committee  I would have to ask the ladies at this table who were in charge of that operation.

Information & Ethics committee  We would have to look more closely at the requests that make up this 5%. We do know, however, that in the case of requests involving several departments, consultations with foreign governments and national security matters, the Justice Department must determine what information can or cannot be disclosed and such request therefore take much longer and are more complex to process.

Information & Ethics committee  We're expecting WikiLeaks to release some 270,000 documents. A limited number of these documents--a bit more than 2,000--relate specifically to Canada-U.S. relations. There may be mention of Canada in hundreds of thousands of documents. Will those references be relevant to Canada's foreign relations, or are we just being mentioned in passing--Canada was at the table?

Information & Ethics committee  Information-sharing agreements are signed, most of the time, on very specific issues--the exchange of intelligence, for instance--as they relate to specific circumstances. If we're talking about the general conversation diplomats may have, there is no specific arrangement we have with foreign countries about these things.

Information & Ethics committee  It's my responsibility to make sure the performance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade improves. This is what I'm asked to do by my deputy minister, and I will be judged on the outcome of the work. It's the same thing with regard to Madame Dubé, the director general of corporate services, and the same thing with Madam McCulloch, who is the director of ATIP.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, the minister's accountability is to government and to Parliament, so that's an issue for Parliament to discuss with the government. With regard to our own accountability, we're being asked to deliver a certain number of things within the legislative framework provided to us, and that's what we're trying to do, given the availability of the resources to do so.

Information & Ethics committee  One of the most prominent topics we have on our access to information list is Afghanistan, issues pertaining to detainees and issues pertaining to our actions in Afghanistan at large, yes.