The advice I would have for committee members, to begin with, in terms of a policy direction to take on that issue would be to look at the UN document. It talks about harms tests and public interest overrides as essential features of right to information legislation. I have the text in French in front of me, but you have it there because the clerk of the committee has circulated copies to committee members.
At the very back of this document, “Inside and Outside the Box” you can find annex II and that statement of principles. Principle 4, on page 33, talks about a three-part test in terms of harms tests and public interest tests:
The information must relate to a legitimate aim listed in the law; Disclosure must threaten to cause substantial harm to that aim; and The harm to the aim must be greater than the public interest in having the information.
It's that type of broad public interest override we'd like to see in New Brunswick, and I think the same would apply federally in Canada as well.