I will say that if questions are posed in French, I will do my best to answer them in that language.
Let me just say this. I have in my hand a document that was prepared in 1987 by a committee very much like yours. I was proud to have been one of the research directors on the Open and Shut report, as it was called in 1987.
Interestingly, on that committee was a younger member of Parliament by the name of Rob Nicholson, now the Honourable the Minister of Justice, as well as a member from Burnaby named Svend Robinson and a gentleman from Montreal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Mr. Warren Allmand. They produced a unanimous report containing dozens of recommendations. I regret to say that absolutely nothing resulted from their work, now some 22 years ago. Indeed, very few legislative changes at all have emerged over the years.
On the basis of this experience, therefore, you will understand that I am not optimistic about reform efforts in respect of the Access to Information Act. Yet, in the immortal words of the poet Alexander Pope, “hope springs eternal”.
I have given the clerk of your committee a paper that I prepared in both official languages last year and delivered at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa. It summarizes the things I would propose for your consideration.
Let me say, however, at the outset that I am in substantial agreement with most of the 12 recommendations that information commissioner Marleau has provided to your committee. And of course I am in general agreement with the draft bill prepared by the former commissioner, Mr. Reid, which I am pleased to see has been taken up by a number of members of Parliament now. However, I sincerely hope that it is a government bill that emerges as a consequence of your deliberations. In my view that will signal the necessary support from the government for long-overdue reform of this act.
My message is very much in line with the mandate of your committee, namely that the time for study is over and the time for action is now. The Access to Information Act is over a generation old, over 25 years of age. It was brought in before computers were widespread, before the use of the Internet, e-mail, and the like. As Commissioner Loukidelis has told you, it is a first-generation act that you have before you; the world has moved on, and it is time for reform.
I look forward to your questions.