Information & Ethics committee  It definitely would complicate things in my office. The transition period, in my view, would have been required if any changes had been made to the actual exemptions. That would have created a difference in terms of the transition period—

Information & Ethics committee  —but there are no changes to the exemption regime, so I don't see any problem with doing all the investigations under a new regime.

Information & Ethics committee  It could, potentially—

Information & Ethics committee  Based on what C-58 does, yes, it could be denied, because it could generate a large number of requests. It could be denied because it's not specific enough and doesn't meet the criteria of section 6.

Information & Ethics committee  It could be even if you were just to say, “all records in relation to Afghan detainees”.

Information & Ethics committee  Of course.

Information & Ethics committee  I would agree with you that if Bill C-58 is not amended in a significant manner, I would much prefer to keep the status quo.

Information & Ethics committee  You will understand that it is not really appropriate for me to comment on the way parliamentarians are using funds. As I said earlier, any proactive disclosure is entirely welcome and appropriate, provided that cases where exemptions are applied are subject to oversight by the

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I have a lot of concern with regard to that provision that would allow institutions to refuse to process requests when there is such a large number of records. I think that the provisions that exist now are sufficient. There is a duty to assist that exists. The request has

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  The current practice is to try to assess what the requesters are looking for and to assist them in formulating their requests in a way that is appropriate.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. There is another issue here. There are instances of requesters not wanting to provide all of those three requirements when they make a request.

Information & Ethics committee  The requester might be an investigative journalist like Daniel Leblanc. In 2000, he wanted to have a broad spectrum to basically see the records that would be—

Information & Ethics committee  —related to the sponsorship budget. One other issue that was mentioned by some of your witnesses from institutions is that of people requesting subject headers. The requesters sometimes request a list of subject headers because then they only ask specifically for certain emails