Thank you, Mr. Whalen, for your input.
The committee decided to embark on this pursuant to a report of the commissioner and report cards on certain departments. As I know you are aware, a number of the departments received failing grades, and a couple, in fact, had red alerts.
The word “leadership” came up in the commentary of the access commissioner. It has also come up at our hearings, and depending on how you look at it, it seems that leadership is either by the commissioner, or the government, the head of the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister, or the ministers themselves.
We have backlogs. We have human resources problems, which exacerbate the backlogs. We have a vintage piece of legislation. I think the committee is hoping that we're going to be able to find solid recommendations on how we can address the issue of getting this act to respond to the accountability of the government with regard to access to information.
Is there anything happening in the New Brunswick model or other models you are aware of that would specifically address the problem of getting the intent of the act to work?