Mr. Chair, there are a number of questions there. I would like to answer the first one first.
It must be understood that there is one act that governs access to information. There are formal rules, as you know. When we get a request under that act, I think it costs $5 to get an answer. There is one specific system under the Access to Information Act. My office plays no role in compiling the answers. We are informed about the answers, but this is information sharing only. We never take part in the task of replying to the requests. That is what the act stipulates and we comply with it.
The act also applies to all requests, whether they come from the public, from the media, or from whomever. I have already mentioned the procedure we follow when a request comes from a journalist. We get a lot of them.
I would also like to say that, according to the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, our department is one of the 10 best, out of 24, in replying to access to information requests. But we are still trying to improve our performance.