Well, I think the issue about cabinet records is that under the Access to Information Act here federally, it's an exclusion, and there is a certification process to determine whether in fact it's a cabinet record. Either the Clerk of the Privy Council or the Attorney General certifies it, etc.
The same process does not exist anywhere else in Canada that I'm aware of. Most of the time it's an exemption, as opposed to an exclusion, so it's like any other record: the person makes a request, and if it involves a cabinet record, they come back saying that it's exempt based on this cabinet record exemption. In most provinces they have a right to appeal to a commissioner, and the commissioner views the record and makes a determination.
I don't think it's the case anywhere in Canada that cabinet records are open. I know that in British Columbia they do post certain cabinet decisions on the Internet, and you can see in the Access to Information Act that there are some exceptions to the exclusion--which means it falls within the act--for decisions that have already been made by cabinet if the record is 20 years old or if the decision was made in the four years....
I forget; I'd have to look at it. In other words, there are some exceptions that fall within the act, as opposed to its being excluded. I think that's the real distinction in the federal act.
The exceptions occur if the decision discussion papers have been made public, if it's been four years since the decision's been made, or if the records are over 20 years of age. In Ontario, for example, if the record is over 20 years of age, it's not exempt. Typically cabinet records fall into exemptions, and the difference here in the federal government is that it's an exclusion, which means it doesn't even fall within the act at all, as long as it's truly a cabinet record.