I will have to refer your third question to Mr. Marleau and others.
As I said, the Office of the Ombudsman in New Brunswick sees no point in restricting access to information. We think that limiting the right of ordinary citizens would run counter to the nature of this fundamental right.
With respect to preferred status for the media, some witnesses have mentioned this to the committee. If I understood correctly, this is the approach used in some American states. I think the idea deserves study, but before we get that far, there should be greater use of access to information by the media. I do not know whether there really is a problem at the federal level because journalists and other members of the media use the system frequently. However, I do think that the committee should be very concerned about any attempt to limit the number of ATI requests made by the media, in particular. In New Brunswick, the most frequent users of the Access to Information Act are the members of the legislative assembly. Here again, we can talk about the importance of the transparency provided by parliamentarians, as by the media. There is the issue of privileged status, but the challenge for us is rather to ensure that the media use the system properly. There are not too many requests from the media in New Brunswick, and we organize seminars to encourage the media to use the tools available to them under the act. I think this should be done at the federal level as well.