If you would like to, I could make a short presentation.
First of all, on November 3, 2005, this committee passed a motion asking the minister to prepare a bill and to present it to the committee. On May 15, I raised this motion again because we had a new team. Unfortunately, it was decided at that time to hear from the Information Commissioner, Mr. Reid, and then from the minister, and then to discuss what to do next. We indeed had the commissioner appear, then the minister on June 19. Finally, I took up the issue again on Wednesday, September 27 and this Committee passed a motion asking the minister to bring to the committee a strengthened and updated Access to Information Act by December 15.
We are now the 4th of December. I, for one, have not heard anything from the minister. Maybe you did. It seems very important to me to remind him that we expect his bill by December 15. At this point in time, at 5:10 p.m., he only has nine days left to table his bill, only nine sitting days of this House.
So my motion reads:
— Further to the appearances of the minister of Justice, The Honourable Vic Toews, and the Information Commissioner, John Reid, before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics; and — Further to the motion by the Committee recommending to the government that it table in the House by December 15, 2006 a new, strengthened and updated Access to Information Act, which could be based on the work of the Information Commissioner; Be it agreed: — That the Chair of the Committee write to the minister to remind him of the December 15 deadline. As of December 4, he will have only ten (10) working days left for unveiling this new bill; — That in this letter signed by the Chair of the Committee, the Chair ask the minister to inform the Committee what stage the work on the bill has reached, either in writing or by appearing before the Committee.