Thank you very much for that question.
In the second part of your question you expressed concern that perhaps a discretion on the part of the commissioner to not investigate could increase the number of Federal Court actions. When we're talking about court appearances and court proceedings, there is always the issue of cost and whether the courts would be accessible to more complainants, in view of what it costs to retain counsel, file proceedings, and pursue them.
In British Columbia we have a discretion to not investigate. That applies on the access to information side as well as the privacy protection side--I play both roles. Of course we only decline to investigate a relatively small minority of cases, and we only do so consistent with administrative law principles. In good faith and acting on relevant and rational grounds, we may decline to investigate something that may be within our jurisdiction, but for a variety of reasons there may be another remedy through another process where it's more appropriate to pursue that remedy, or we will use other grounds to decline to investigate. Again, that applies to a small minority of cases, but it is an important feature of our law that we have the ability to turn away those cases that deserve to be turned away.