Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to begin by thanking Ms. Block for noting that the Liberal Party has an open mind when it comes to looking to other jurisdictions for best practices, whether they're provincial or as mentioned in previous submissions, with mention being made of New Zealand having, once again, this proactive, open system, where you post things proactively.
We certainly do align ourselves with the principles that the Canadian Bar Association stated in their preamble when they referenced the current President, Mr. Obama, about the importance of transparency in a democracy. Unfortunately, the current government seems to be aligning itself and standing shoulder to shoulder with the previous administration, whose guiding principle seemed to be the opposite--secrecy.
Let's see if there's actual support for that type of premise. Looking at some 200 requests submitted since May 2007, up to this point right now, 25 of those remain unprocessed, meaning they're still outstanding. Let me give you examples. These are things that are of fundamental public interest. If not addressed, they undermine public confidence in democracy, in our government.
One of those requests was to the Department of National Defence for information on the acquisition of Chinook helicopters. It's been delayed 330 days. That deals with the whole issue of how we go about our military contracting. There are two requests to the Department of Foreign Affairs for information on detainee transfers. Those requests have been delayed for 290 days. That goes to the fundamental principle of whether we support our proclamations of support for human rights.
There are substantive principles at issue here.
When I look at these quick fixes, quick fix number nine, I believe, is the recommendation that the commissioner be required to provide extensions past 60 days. Yet there are no penalties and no way for him to guarantee that's going to happen. When we look at the record, we see that we've gone from 30-day or 60-day periods under the previous Liberal government to, currently, 150 to 250 days.
If a government's intent really is secrecy, and if their modus operandi is secretive, if that's the guiding principle of a Prime Minister and his operatives within a PMO and PCO, will these quick fixes actually work? For instance, in number nine, if we say, well, we're going to tell the commissioner he has to give permission, but right now virtually nothing happens within 60 days, why pass a recommendation that's just going to get ignored unless there are some firm penalties that are attached to this, or at least some way of shaming a government, of publicly exposing a government in a way that would make it move?
Could I just have your thoughts on this?