Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. We accept the findings in their entirety, and I think much of the work is actually already under way. We've clarified some of the roles that departments have. You will remember that I have spoken to this committee before about cyber as a team sport.

Government Operations committee  As mentioned before, this is a national initiative that we're working on with provinces and some private sectors. One of the key tenets around digital credentials is that they're voluntary. This will be for Canadians who want to use digital credentials—and they'll be able to. I've given examples in the past where B.C. and Alberta have already instituted digital credentials, which are essentially digital versions of physical credentials that we have today.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Johns. One of the tenets and one of the digital standards that we have is developing the open.... There are opportunities when we can use open source, and we can work across departments and across industries, in fact, to develop software where the IP is out in the open and can be shared freely.

Government Operations committee  We continue to evolve the digital credential program within the federal government. There have been some important pieces since the last time I addressed this committee. We're moving quite rapidly with our provincial partners at establishing a national framework for leveraging digital credentials, and many of the provinces are already using those digital credentials.

Government Operations committee  I'll let my colleague, Madam Boudreau, answer that question. I think she's better positioned to respond to you.

Government Operations committee  I don't have a specific date on the publication. What I can say is that there's work under way while that report is being finalized. There's work to support departments. We've just completed a request for proposals and we have contracts in place now so departments can actually avail themselves of a common ATIP solution, which will allow obviously departments to have common processes to speed up the work on that.

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely. The Information Commissioner taking over while the process is completed to appoint a new Privacy Commissioner is seen as an interim measure through to October of this year. As for your second question regarding the report on the access to information, that will be tabled before the end of this calendar year.

Government Operations committee  I think you're absolutely correct. The way that departments—our department included—set and meet those targets is germane to the review that's under way. We're looking at putting in place a software system to help departments actually expedite the ATIP request processing within the departments, so that each department does not have to go out and do that on their own.

Government Operations committee  The RFP is in its final stages, so we can expect a contract award within the coming months. That will be there and available for departments to be able to avail themselves of it. We've talked a lot about recruitment. We're working with departments on recruitment of ATIP professionals.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely, that's a great question. I think Marie-Chantal spoke to the variety of return-to-work activities. Departments are looking at what the critical services are within each of the departments and making sure that those are staffed up accordingly. As you mentioned, a lot of this work does require paper, and some of it does require work on classified systems, which, again, requires work on site.

Government Operations committee  Looking over the past five years, we've seen at least a doubling of the overall number of access to information requests and then couple that with the time during COVID, as you mentioned. I think the work we're doing under the access to information review will yield.... I think the minister will be tabling that report in Parliament by the end of this calendar year.

Government Operations committee  Happy to continue the conversation.

Government Operations committee  There will always be physical opportunities for this. There's no Canadian left behind. I won't say digital passports are part of the initial plan. We need to get the infrastructure in place to start to use that. I wouldn't say digital passports would be the first place we would start that.

Government Operations committee  We're planning a technical briefing, and will be happy to go into a little more detail where we can show this more effectively. The short of it is, we're not displacing the other forms of identification that are out there. The examples you gave where you're logging into individual systems...If you think about the ability to have a digital ID, though...I'll go back to the Government of Canada.

Government Operations committee  We have 33 departments and 270 different services. I don't have the exact number of accounts.