Information & Ethics committee  It is concerning there's no action plan being created or any actual actions being taken this year. It looks like we'll have to wait for the next round of reviews of the legislation in five years, which I'm not going to be here for.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm happy you made that distinction, because the act does make a distinction. It's the request itself that has to be abusive, malicious, vexatious or unreasonable, not the requester. We are spending a lot of time reviewing the wording of the request, making sure that what's being asked meets the intent of the Access to Information Act and that the request itself is not abusive or vexatious.

Information & Ethics committee  I can assure you, as I said earlier, that I am definitely feeling the independence in my role. I use all the authorities I have under the act. The challenge is, as you said, with the optics and what it looks like. However, I am not at all challenged in my authority with respect to who is making that decision or who's asking for the application.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. In my opening remarks.... Given that you are preparing a report with respect to the review of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act system, I think it is appropriate for the committee to add recommendations with respect to having a mechanism that's independent for my office and for agents of Parliament.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I would like the commissioner's office to have access to an independent funding mechanism, where a process is put in place, as is the case for other agents of Parliament who are completely independent. That way, we could appear before the committee or before a committee that is specially created for that purpose to present our financial needs and report on our spending.

Information & Ethics committee  I can assure you that I conduct independent investigations. The only thing affected by the lack of funding is the number of investigations we can conduct and the resources we have when we have to go to court. Right now, we have to make choices. If we need to conduct more investigations, but the government is imposing limits on our funding, then that raises questions about our independence.

Information & Ethics committee  As the Auditor General has said before in committee, Parliament sometimes grants us new powers, but there are costs associated with that. That is also true for Mr. Dufresne. For example, since the coming into force of former Bill C-58, I now have the authority to make orders and publish reports.

Information & Ethics committee  Section 6.1 that Ms. Charette is referring to is a new section of the act, which allows any institution, not just the Privy Council, that receives a complaint or access request that it considers abusive or frivolous to ask me for permission not to respond to it. Such a request is legal and is part of the process put in place following the passage of former Bill C-58.

Information & Ethics committee  In fact, requests of that nature are exceptional. It is very rare that we accept that type of request precisely for the reasons you raise. The right to access information is a quasi-constitutional right. The request for information truly has to be abusive or frivolous and an abuse of the right of access for our commissioner to allow an institution to decline to respond to a request.

Information & Ethics committee  That is when the requester's intention is not really to have access to information. It is when the request is really abusive in the sense that it may constitute harassment or be completely unreasonable. At one point, we received a request involving over one million pages of information and the requester refused to negotiate.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, but that is my role. It is a somewhat judicial role. I have to weigh the arguments of both parties, who, in these cases, have the opportunity to make representations. I am glad that the institutions have to go through my office. This helps limit these types of requests and ensures that rejections apply truly to exceptional cases.

Information & Ethics committee  No, it is not common. As I was saying, we have received maybe 30 or so requests for permission to reject a request for access to information. We rarely approve those requests.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for inviting me to speak to you this morning. I am pleased to report that my office had another record year in 2022-23. During the last fiscal year, my team closed 8,089 complaints. Since the beginning of my mandate in 2018, the annual number of complaints closed by my office has increased by 310%.