Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
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Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics ETHI Ï NUMBER 013 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 42nd PARLIAMENT EVIDENCE Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Chair Mr. Blaine Calkins 1 Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Ï (0845) the act provides the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat with the [English] authority to issue management policy. The Chair (Mr. Blaine Calkins (Red Deer—Lacombe, CPC)): Good morning, colleagues. I call the meeting to order. To help departments and agencies manage their information, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat issues information manage- Welcome back. I hope everybody had a productive weekend. ment policy, directives, standards and guideline documents. We're resuming our study of the Access to Information Act. This is meeting 13. [English] We are very pleased to have with us again, from the Treasury The policy on information management applies to 93 departments Board Secretariat, Ms. Jennifer Dawson, deputy chief information and agencies identified in schedules I, I.1, and II of the Financial officer. From Public Services and Procurement Canada, we are Administration Act. This policy doesn't apply to crown corporations. pleased to have Sarah Paquet, the assistant deputy minister. Welcome. You have with you Mr. Simon Fradette—that's the best I can do en anglais, monsieur—director general of specialized To support the implementation of the policy, the secretariat services. provides advice and guidance to departments and agencies. The secretariat also supports policy compliance and the Government of We'll go in the order in which I introduced you, and you'll have up Canada information management community through outreach and to 10 minutes for your opening comments. engagement activities. We have one hour, and then we'll proceed to the rounds of [Translation] questioning, and we'll get as far as we can. I'll remind colleagues at the table that in the second hour we are going to return to the The Secretariat is charged with monitoring how closely depart- estimates. We'll have both the Information Commissioner and the ments follow the information management policy. Commissioner of Lobbying here, and then we'll have to proceed to the votes on those estimates. [English] Without any further ado, please go ahead, Ms. Dawson, for up to 10 minutes. Information management is a shared responsibility among all Ms. Jennifer Dawson (Deputy Chief Information Officer, Government of Canada employees. In 2007 TBS issued its directive Treasury Board Secretariat): I'd like to thank the committee for on information management roles and responsibilities, which inviting me to talk about information management in the Govern- provides direction on managing information to them. ment of Canada today. [Translation] [Translation] Like financial and human resources, information represents a Other key partners in information management include Library critical strategic asset to the Government of Canada. and Archives Canada, mandated to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations, [English] and the Canada School of Public Service, with a role in developing Making high-quality, trustworthy information available to deci- and delivering a core learning program, which includes information sion-makers helps to deliver effective programs and services. management, for all public servants. Departments can then be more responsive and accountable to Canadians. [English] [Translation] Finally, Public Services and Procurement Canada is responsible The government also recognizes that information needs to be for providing common government-wide IT solutions. protected for such reasons as privacy, confidentiality and security. Deputy heads are responsible for the management and administration My colleague Sarah Paquet, assistant deputy minister, will provide of information under the Financial Administration Act. Section 7 of more information about the role of PSPC. 2 ETHI-13 May 10, 2016 As the Government of Canada moves forward strengthening our Like any computer system, GCDOCS is continually improving information management practices, our enterprise-wide content and new functionalities will be added to the current offer. For management solution, GCDOCS, being delivered by PSPC, is going example, within a year, users will be able to easily use GCDOCS on to be a critical enabler. their BlackBerrys and tablets. [Translation] In closing, I am pleased to say that the rollout of GCDOCS is on I will now let Ms. Paquet speak to you on the status of the track. This tool is part of the work to overhaul the Access to GCDOCS program government-wide. Information Act, as it facilitates access to and production of records, Ms. Sarah Paquet (Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Services reliability and conservation of information. It also makes it possible and Procurement Canada): Good day, Mr. Chair. My name is to search quickly and comprehensively for available information. Sarah Paquet and I am the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Integrated Services Branch of Public Services and Procurement Thank you. We will be happy to answer any questions you may Canada. As my colleague from the Treasury Board Secretariat has have. just explained, the GCDOCS system is a major transformation with respect to information management in the federal public service. Ï (0850) I would first like to describe my department's role. Public Services [English] and Procurement Canada is responsible for providing GCDOCS to Government of Canada departments and agencies. Our department The Chair: Thank you very much. We're going to have some fulfills that role in collaboration with its partners, including the interesting questions, I'm sure. Treasury Board Secretariat—in particular Ms. Dawson's team— Shared Services Canada and the Canada School of Public Service. We'll start with Mr. Lightbound for seven minutes, please. Teamwork and collaboration with all our partners and clients are [Translation] key elements of our identity. GCDOCS, which is a tool based on the business platform of the OpenText company, helps organizations to Mr. Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert, Lib.): Thank you for manage their information more effectively. It is a central system that joining us today. I have some questions about GCDOCS. organizes all of the information generated in daily operations in accordance with the established security level, including files, First, if I am not mistaken, the system was created in 2008. Is that emails, images, videos, and more. correct? Using a single system is a best practice in this field, yielding many Ms. Sarah Paquet: The first contract for an information advantages. The organization's information is contained within a management system was in 1998. Then, as the system evolved, single database, which facilitates access to and production of GCDOCS is now on the OpenText platform. OpenText bought the records. Information is continually updated. Records conservation first company that was providing the service to the government in and disposal management is streamlined. Using the system 2008. So actually we have had an information management system considerably reduces the size of emails because only links are since 1998, but, since 2008, with the purchase by OpenText, the exchanged rather than attachments. The system allows users to work development of the solution has made a lot of progress— always with the latest version of a record, until the final version, always with the same link, without losing previous versions. Mr. Joël Lightbound: OpenText came onto the scene in 2008. The GCDOCS tool has evolved considerably since last year. Why did we have to wait eight years to begin to see concrete results? Consultation and collaboration with our clients has helped us to Can you describe the process since 2008 specifically? establish a cost model ensuring total funding for the system by client Ï (0855) departments and agencies. In other words, it is a full cost recovery model. Moreover, through collaboration with Shared Services Ms. Jennifer Dawson: GCDOCS was adopted less quickly than Canada, we have implemented a platform that will be able to be expected because of a number of factors. used by all our clients. [English] In December 2015, employees in my department were the first to use that platform, through a Shared Services Canada enterprise data centre. There are now 11 departments and agencies on the platform, We shouldn't underestimate the significance of the change for comprising some 25,000 users. There are also some 100,000 people departments moving from existing systems to a new system. It has using previous versions of the tool. taken a bit of time for some of them to rally to a new approach. At the same time, we've been introducing other modernization efforts In the coming years, we will be rolling out GCDOCS in various across the Government of Canada. Some departments have been Government of Canada departments and agencies. To achieve that staging—whether they move to GCDOCS for records management goal, our department, in collaboration with the Treasury Board first, or whether, for example, they adopt common systems for Secretariat, has set up a governance structure with all clients and managing HR or managing finance—and onboarding for different partners. systems at different times. May 10, 2016 ETHI-13 3 It was in 2010 that Treasury Board Secretariat introduced Mr. Joël Lightbound: How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair? direction that all departments, when they were acquiring electronic documentation records management systems, should use the one [English] procured by PWGSC, which was GCDOCS. What we're also seeing is an evolutionary process in that as departments move away from The Chair: A minute and a half or so. the existing systems, they move toward GCDOCS in a phased [Translation] approach. What's happening at this point is that within the next three years we anticipate all of the departments that are served by Shared Mr. Joël Lightbound: Okay. Services Canada will have moved to GCDOCS.