QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Library and Archives Canada
March 9, 2026
Honestly, senator, Canadians cannot afford your deficit-spending government.
The Globe and Mail, on another note, is reporting that Library and Archives Canada is planning deep cuts to its access to information and privacy, or ATIP, team. The archives have repeatedly been the focus of damning reports from the Information Commissioner due to an extensive ATIP backlog.
This decision threatens to make an already struggling system even worse. The commissioner’s 2022 investigation found that nearly 80% of Library and Archives Canada’s requests failed to meet legal timelines. The department itself admits its ability to comply will be impaired by staff reductions. Senator Moreau, what is your government’s plan to ensure that transparency and accountability are preserved at Library and Archives Canada despite these cuts?
There is transparency across the government. The ongoing comprehensive expenditure review is not fundamentally a job-cutting exercise; it is about positioning the government to focus on its core priorities. The government has committed to managing these reductions through attrition and to approach this process compassionately, fairly and in line with Canada’s obligation as an employer.
The reduction does not just cut employment all across the government. We are reducing expenses, and we are investing in Canada’s economy. That’s what we’re doing, and that’s what the government is doing across all services.
I’ll just repeat the Information Commissioner’s findings that nearly 80% of Library and Archives Canada’s requests failed to meet the legal timeline. Senator Moreau, historians, journalists and researchers rely on these records to understand Canada’s history, yet many now must turn to foreign archives because access at home is so limited.
How can Canadians trust that your government is committed to transparency when it uses the guise of cost cutting to avoid accountability?
The government is taking its responsibility quite seriously, and the mandate it received from Canadians is to reduce spending and to increase investment. That’s exactly what we’re doing all across the services of the government, and we are doing it in a very responsible way.
