Thanks very much, and thanks to both the witnesses.
In the federal government there are three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Here we are obviously dealing mainly with the executive branch in relation to open government, but I think we will be pressing on in the study at the Library of Parliament committee to deal more with Michael's open Parliament approach in terms of making sure that we, as parliamentarians, have the technology and tools that we need to do a better job representing Canadians between elections. We'll be looking at that.
All three areas, obviously, have to be open if we're going to actually have open government. I would like to know where you both feel we are in Canada in that endeavour. As we proceed on this study at the committee, what advice do you have for the committee as to what we should be asking from witnesses?
Obviously we think it's a bit early for you to dictate the recommendations, but in terms of the biggest possible approach to open government, I would like to know some of the things you think we should focus on as a committee and how we should proceed, and from the municipal point of view, how does that marry with what the citizens we share at all levels of government need in order to conduct their business?
At the beginning I have to say that at the Public Health Agency of Canada, I had huge excitement at the prospect of GIS mapping of the social determinants of health being able to actually show neighbourhoods of high need, in terms of poverty, violence, the environment, shelter, equity, and education, and how you would, as you say, merge all those data such that Canadians could actually see that we would be able to do needs-based funding based on what showed on the mapping of the data.
Do you have some advice, each of you, in terms of how to begin this huge project?