Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here today with your colleagues, Mr. Marleau.
I suspect that you and other information commissioners around the world were excited by President Obama's first act of setting a very clear presumption of openness for his government. The very first thing he did was make a statement and executive order around access to information. In fact he said in that executive order that “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” He went on to say: “All agencies should adopt a presumption in favour of disclosure in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in the FOIA.”
Is that the kind of thing you mean when you talk about a culture of openness or a cultural shift that's necessary for the Freedom of Information Act, or the Access to Information Act in Canada, to be administered appropriately?