Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Whalen. I apologize for being late. I would also like to apologize to the committee.
With me today are some of my constituents who are being members of Parliament for a day. I'm sure you know that it is hard to move around Parliament Hill as a group. However, this is for security reasons. My "members of Parliament for a day" are here with me and are listening to our proceedings in order to get a better understanding of the role of MPs. As a member of Parliament, I would invite you to do this with your constituents. It is a very enriching experience. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of your presentation, so some of my questions may deal with matters you covered in your remarks.
As you know, our act is over 25 years old. No one had even thought about the Internet when it was passed. The cultural makeup of our country was very different then, and my colleague beside me had not even been born. That shows you how hold this legislation is, and why we have to bring it up to date. In his fourth recommendation, Mr. Marleau would give the ombudsman discretionary authority to decide whether or not to investigate complaints. However, recommendation 11 says that dissatisfied complainants may go directly to the Federal Court if the Commissioner rejects their complaint.
Would it not be simpler to continue to require the Commissioner to investigate all complaints, to avoid recourse to the Federal Court, which could be very expensive for the people involved. People who chose to do this, would have to have a lawyer, among other things. If the Commissioner investigated all complaints, recommendation 11 would not be necessary.