OTTAWA – Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry Member of Parliament Guy Lauzon was busy on Parliament Hill yesterday pushing the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to improve the customer service and response times when responding to taxpayers. 

During the February 23rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, Lauzon grilled Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart on the Commission’s unacceptable response to inquiries. 

“You mentioned that you have a 12-month target and if an investigation is completed before 12 months, you've met the target. The number you had that wasn't meeting that target was considerable,” said Lauzon. “I just can't imagine that you would build in a target that would go out that long.”

Lauzon argued that the Privacy Commission should have a target that is much more customer service oriented. “Have it built into the system, as an example, if your target was to do 80% or 90% of your claims within 90 days, those harder cases--and we had those cases that went on for three months or whatever—could be longer. By just setting a blanket 12 month response policy, you are just setting yourselves up for failure.”

“When taxpayers are funding this organization, and they make an inquiry, they deserve a timely response. As a Member of Parliament who prides himself on providing excellent constituency service, I will be pushing the Commissioner to make these changes immediately,” Lauzon concluded.