First, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the member for his kind comments about my short tenure as commissioner. I must say I received very kind comments from all sides. I was very touched, when I left, by some of you thinking it was prematurely. But for me it was almost on time, in terms of my plans. Thank you very much for those comments.
Concerning the minister who says he got push-back, I'd just answer the honourable member, Monsieur Desnoyers, that you can't expect the deputy minister or assistant deputy minister, or even the access coordinators, to come forward with specific proposals on how to better serve Canadians under access to information. There are people working very hard to do so, but they're at the front line.
I'm not saying deputy ministers don't want change. Some of them have worked very hard to try to improve performance of their department. One of my reports says that the justice department is an example of performance. It's not a stellar example, but it's an example of how you can do better and serve Canadians.
As you well know, the Canadian bureaucracy is not in a leadership role when it comes to policy, and this is a policy issue. It must come from the ministers; it must come from the Prime Minister. There's Minister Toews, who's involved in the sound administration of the statute, the Treasury Board; and there's the Minister of Justice who holds a legislative mandate.
I know public servants; I was one for a long time. If they are told by your leadership that “this is the way things are going to be done”, they'll turn it around, they'll do it. But it's not in their own self-interest to take those kinds of initiatives. Most of the deputy ministers I've spoken with who have made an effort to turn this around end up just as frustrated as you, because there aren't the resources and the means. And when there isn't the political will, it's not theirs to exercise.