Thank you for being here.
I want to discuss some of these so-called “new exemptions” you say are created by the Accountability Act. You said ten new exemptions or exclusions concern you. It's wrong. I'd like to go through the ones you've listed.
Let's start with section 183, Privacy Act, relating to the Privacy Commissioner.
Right now, none of the information exempted in the Accountability Act is accessible under the status quo--none of it. You would not be able to access this information if you filed an ATI today, prior to the passage of Bill C-2. There is no new exemption. There is an expansion with respect to the Privacy Commissioner. We have an exemption here; you speak out in section 222, the Public Service Integrity Commission. That is not a new exemption. The Public Service Integrity Commissioner is not required, under the status quo, to respond to any ATI. We have here another exemption, section 225. That relates also to the Privacy Commissioner. Right now, the Privacy Commissioner is not subject to the act, so it's not a new exemption. We're expanding access to information for that officer of Parliament.
We go down to section 147. This is an exemption relating to the Canada Elections Act. Again, those are exemptions created as a result of an expansion of access to information. An exemption for the National Arts Centre is not a new exemption, because the NAC is not covered under the existing act. There is no current access. A number of them--I've just listed six--are not new exemptions. They're the result of the fact we've actually expanded ATI. Prior to this government's introduction of the Accountability Act, these organizations had no responsibility to reply to access to information requests. Now they have some. You're saying we have not gone far enough, but it's not fair to say we've gone backwards, because the existing exemptions are merely exemptions from new access provisions we've created.
It is wrong to say we are moving backwards away from ATI. You might argue we've not gone far enough, and you probably have some persuasive arguments to convince us we should go further, but to argue we are going backwards on those particular organizations is incorrect.
I'd invite your comments.