I'm still not sure Mr. Sauvageau understands. What this amendment actually does is it removes the possibility that this clause could be misinterpreted to shield information from disclosure.
Without this amendment, proposed section 16.3 could potentially lead one to believe that the Chief Electoral Officer has the right to refuse to disclose any record requested.
What this amendment does is it gives precision to the fact that if those documents were accessible under section 541 of the Canada Elections Act, the Chief Electoral Officer would not be allowed to use this section in the Accountability Act as an excuse for not revealing them.
I think Mr. Sauvageau is speaking as though this amendment seeks to further constrain the flow of information, when in fact it does exactly the opposite.
If it is truly his view that we need to have in place the maximum transparency to protect against an Elections Canada conspiracy and a Quebec referendum, he ought to be anxiously supporting this amendment.