Mr. Chairman, the previous committee asked me to produce a draft model act on how to go about reforming the Access to Information Act. I was given very clear instructions that nothing radical was to be in it and it was to be an evolutionary change. That's what we did.
There is nothing in the act that has not been done in some other country, but we have mainly raided the provinces of Canada to look for ideas and to incorporate them into our model. Every proposal in there is in existence in some jurisdiction in Canada. We also borrowed some from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
There's nothing radical in it. This is a very straightforward development, and it takes into account the fact that when our act was passed 23 years ago, it was at the leading edge. It is now in the rear, desperately trying to catch up. We are no longer a leader in this field. The provinces, particularly Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, are far more advanced in terms of their legislation than the federal legislation is.
We produced this act at the request of the committee. The committee then took it on, studied it, and in its seventh report to the House of Commons asked the government to bring down a model act based on the open government act. At that point, the election intervened.
I should add that at that point, after the committee brought down its recommendations, Mr. Justice Gomery studied the proposal. When he was doing his cross-country tour, changes to the Access to Information Act, as recommended by the committee, were part of his mandate. He reported on them, and I have given you the information.