That's a good point. The point is whether or not the actual documents exist. In some cases, if you're asking for information that simply doesn't exist in a documented form, and government has to go and create the document in order to provide the information, it does become very expensive. If you're talking about $1,600 for simply photocopying a document or record that exists, I don't believe that's what occurs.
I'm familiar with another case that was the subject of a newspaper report just recently, where someone asked for information. It was from the RCMP, and the cost was $1.6 million, they were told; yet when they went back and examined that request using a different computer program, they were able to do it at a fraction of the cost. I can't remember what the amount was.
The point is that there will be a cost associated with creating documents that do not exist. I think it's incumbent upon the government to explore the ways to ensure that the document being created is created in a most cost-effective manner. I agree with you that you don't simply want to say, well, that's going to cost $2 million, and write the cheque before we start work on that. I understand that issue.
Again, there's a very big difference between having the document and having to create the document.