Ms. Legault, in the last paragraph of the message you sent us, you say this:
Both abroad and at the municipal level in Canada, initiatives aimed at opening up the management of information have meant that a growing number of data sets are put on line where the public can access them. The Office of the Information Commissioner will make an ongoing effort to promote the necessary paradigm shift to ensure greater transparency within the public sector, in the hope that this change will give rise to similar initiatives at the national level.
Further on, on page 21, you talk about the initiatives you have taken. The second one involves implementing best practices to ensure there is proactive disclosure.
I know that this Committee will be looking at proactive disclosure elsewhere—at the municipal level, where Quebec sets a good example, or in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Finland and the United States, where Mr. Obama really launched that whole process as soon as he took office. It is clear that all of 2009 was a year of openness and transparency. It's a global trend. Everywhere information is being disclosed.
Of course, that requires political will, but I see that you are a woman of very considerable substance and that you have an absolutely fantastic team. Since you included that in your initiatives, I am wondering how you will go about ensuring that certain departments or agencies put their information up on their site. I don't know whether we are going against the trend here. Tis is something that brings us into the political realm, but I, for one, would like to know what you can do, within your area of jurisdiction, to improve that openness.