There is no such thing as a point of information. But we'll deal with that. Certainly any request for information from committee members can be given straight to the clerk.
We have with us Mr. Robert Marleau, private citizen.
I'm delighted, Mr. Marleau, that you were able to join us. I know you are going to be out of the country after this meeting; you are on a private next effort at retirement. This has to be part two or three.
We very much appreciate the work you have done, and I'm sure the members will have something else to say about some of the history you have left behind.
The issue of access to information has been on for some time. Your predecessor, Mr. Reid, was very active in terms of pursuing reform issues, and in fact the open government act was a comprehensive rewrite of the act. It was a good first step, and since that time we've had an opportunity to look at some of the other areas.
The reason I invited you to come back was a consequence of a little meeting you and I had on the street in front of the West Block. We were talking about how we didn't appear to have the time in this Parliament to do a complete review of the act, right from section 1. Having a look at what has come to be known as quick fixes had its birth, and you presented to us, from your experience and your view, some of the areas we could consider. As you know, the committee responded to that by issuing the 11th report of this committee, and in it we agreed with some of your suggestions and fully supported them, while other parts we thought were interesting but needed a little more maturation. And I think there were a couple that we were not prepared to encourage at this time.
The witnesses we had were a good cross-section of people, of the pros and cons, and I think the committee was quite satisfied that its report was a good first step, thanks to you.
Now we have the government's response to our report, which took some time, and the thoughtful attention of all the members of the committee and the witnesses, and we thought it would be useful to look at that government response in the context of where we have been and where we are, and use things like your report cards and some of the assessments you have had to determine whether or not there is another step, a second step. It will be up to the committee to determine where we go from here. I don't consider this matter to be closed at all. It's an ongoing obligation of this committee to consider.
I understand that you have a very brief opening statement for us.
For the members' information, what I will do is follow our normal pattern of interventions by members, but I encourage members not only just to ask questions of Mr. Marleau but also to use their time to make their own comments on areas of the response or where we are going to help to encourage others to start thinking about your ideas, your response, to where we are right now and where we might go. That will give us a little idea of whether or not there is some cream that is going to float to the surface. We will try that for a while, rather than just having it free form, so that we get a good balance of input from all honourable members.
Having said that, Mr. Marleau, thank you again for coming. Please proceed with your opening remarks.