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Ottawa’s national-security system is built around secrecy, but one obligation was written plainly into law: Parliament was supposed to conduct a comprehensive review of the statute governing the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians five years after it took effect. That trigger arrived in October 2022. The review did not. In its 2025 annual report, NSICOP itself said the exercise was “now three years overdue,” turning an administrative delay into a broader accountability issue. The lapse began under the previous Liberal government and continued into the current Parliament as foreign interference, cyber threats and expanded digital investigative powers pushed security oversight higher on Ottawa’s agenda. Crucially, Canada did not stop reviewing intelligence agencies during those years. What went unreviewed was the legislation governing one of the country’s most important bodies for classified parliamentary scrutiny.
The Deadline Was Written Into Law—and Missed
The obligation comes from Section 34 of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act. The legislation came into force on October 6, 2017, and states that five years later a comprehensive review of its provisions and operation is to be undertaken by a designated or specially established committee of the Senate, House of Commons or both. In practical terms, that statutory trigger arrived on October 6, 2022. Yet the exercise remained outstanding years afterward. NSICOP’s 2025 annual report, tabled in Parliament in June 2026, highlighted the failure directly and called for the government to refer the review to the appropriate parliamentary committee. By the committee’s own accounting, it was three years overdue. The criticism therefore does not rest solely on an opposition accusation: the classified-review body created by the law has formally recorded that the review required by that same law was not conducted on schedule.
That distinction is important because the lapse can easily be misunderstood as a three-year shutdown in national-security scrutiny. It was not. NSICOP continued examining classified subjects, while the separate National Security and Intelligence Review Agency continued scrutinizing security and intelligence activities across the federal government. NSICOP reported that its current committee met 10 times during 2025, received briefings from major security organizations and continued work on issues such as the role of the National Security and Intelligence Adviser and terrorist financing. Its annual report also recorded that in 2025 no minister prevented one of its proposed reviews on the stated ground that it would injure national security, and no requested information was refused under the specific statutory provision governing such refusals. The problem is therefore narrower but still consequential: Parliament missed the mandated opportunity to examine whether the rules governing NSICOP itself remain appropriate.
Why the Review Matters Beyond a Missed Date
NSICOP occupies an unusual position in Canada’s accountability architecture. Its members are parliamentarians with high-level security clearances who meet privately and can examine national-security and intelligence activity across government. The committee has dealt with subjects ranging from foreign interference and cyber defence to Global Affairs Canada’s intelligence activities and the federal policing mandate of the RCMP. That places its members in a position ordinary parliamentary committees rarely occupy: they can work with information that cannot safely be debated on the floor of the House of Commons. The five-year legislative review was supposed to test whether that arrangement was functioning as intended. NSICOP’s latest annual report identified concrete areas for possible reform, including better access to information, improved information sharing with other review organizations, greater independence and more efficient operations. Those questions directly affect how effectively legislators can scrutinize agencies operating behind classified walls.
The case for revisiting the framework has only become more significant since the original law was enacted in 2017. NSICOP’s 2024 special examination of foreign interference was based heavily on classified government assessments and briefings, and the committee noted that it was already the third time it had studied the threat since its establishment. The controversy surrounding access to sensitive information has also repeatedly forced Parliament to confront the difficult balance between secrecy and democratic accountability. Ottawa’s own planning documents showed that NSICOP’s secretariat expected to support Parliament during the statutory review once it was announced. Outside experts were calling for that examination even before the deadline, arguing that it offered a chance to reconsider the committee’s independence and relationship with Parliament. Missing the timetable therefore postponed more than routine legislative housekeeping; it delayed a planned test of whether a structure designed nearly a decade ago still suits a rapidly changing threat environment.
Pressure Builds as the Government Promises Action
By 2026, the overdue review had become a recurring subject in the House of Commons. Conservative MP Alex Ruff, an NSICOP member with a military background, pressed the government in January to name both a start date and the parliamentary committee that would conduct the exercise. Government House leader Steven MacKinnon responded that Ottawa would consider the matter and report to the House at an appropriate time. The pressure continued. On March 25, Ruff placed Motion M-29 on notice, proposing a special joint committee to conduct reviews required under both the NSICOP Act and the National Security Act, 2017. During House debate in April, Liberal MP Greg Fergus openly acknowledged that the NSICOP Act was behind on its five-year review and said he was prepared to work with other parliamentarians to ensure it happened. The record shows the missed deadline was well known inside Parliament before the committee formally highlighted the three-year delay in its annual report.
The government offered its clearest commitment on June 11, 2026. Ruff again asked when the process would begin and whether Liberals would support his proposal for a joint committee. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree replied that the government looked forward to undertaking the review “starting this year.” That promise changes the immediate question from whether the delay occurred to whether Ottawa will finally close it. Responsibility is not exclusively ministerial: Section 34 ultimately requires a Senate, House or joint parliamentary committee to conduct the comprehensive examination. Still, NSICOP itself has specifically urged the government to refer the review, and the statutory deadline passed while the Liberals controlled the federal agenda. Completing it would give parliamentarians a chance to examine the committee’s information access, independence, reporting mechanisms and relationship with other watchdogs. Until that work is formally carried through, a safeguard deliberately placed in the 2017 law to force periodic scrutiny remains an unfinished obligation.
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