I must say that we have an active complaint in relation to CAIRS. We are in the process of investigating these complaints, but they're not completed. It's part of our review. In our office, there have been two other instances of complaints in relation to the CAIRS system. Our office reviewed all of this information. It's true that at the onset the CAIRS system was being used to develop a centralized view of complex cases. It raised different types of issues, and it was criticized for this.
In recent years, the CAIRS system has actually morphed into a new use. It became useful for requesters, who took the information collected in CAIRS, which they gathered through access to information requests, and used it as a central database. David McKie collected this information and created the database. Now Michael Geist at the University of Ottawa has done the same thing. In fact, the CAIRS system has evolved over the years from a government tool to a requester's tool.
When we were consulted about the discontinuance of CAIRS, our office took the public position that CAIRS should be continued until a better or newer process was available, even though we were aware of some issues with the technology underlying CAIRS. Indeed, CAIRS has evolved into a tool for requesters, as opposed to a tool for government.