I read carefully the well-prepared report here.
Thank you, Mr. Marleau, for being here. I know this is about the estimates technically, but as you know, these conversations get more wide-ranging, and I appreciated your input to Madame Lavallée's remarks.
I note on the bottom of page 1 of your report you say you were hoping to be able to announce today some dent in the backlog that's been an irritation to users of the system as well, but there's actually an increase. You ask how this can be. I would like to put it to you and have your answer, but you have to look at the root causes of the backlog, I guess, and the overwhelming increase in the number of complaints filed, which says to me the system is not working well. Perhaps the government side is not complying with requests, leading to this complaint.
I'll give you one example. Dawn Black is the defence critic for the NDP, and she recently got an access to information request back saying they needed another 300 days to deal with the inquiry, which had already expired its normal time limit. A further 300 days. Then if she wasn't satisfied with that, she would be faced with filing a complaint with you and waiting God knows how long, through no fault of your own, for that to be completed. Surely that's not freedom of information; that's stifling information.
So I guess I'm asking your views on the doubling of the complaints. Also, one thing you mentioned is the.... No, I'll let you speak to that first, if you will.