Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I apologize that I wasn't here for the first part of your presentation. I was at another meeting.
I do thank you for your input. I think those of us sitting around this table have not only found this discussion very enlightening, but also it follows up on our government's commitment to increase the accountability and transparency. I'm really thinking we're definitely moving in the right direction. Maybe we need to move more quickly. I think that's the impression we're getting.
I found the fundamental principles, Mr. Beamish, that you brought from your commissioner interesting. My question somewhat follows up on Ms. Bennett's question. The first one talks about being proactive rather than reactive. You indicated eliminating a costly and cumbersome disclosure process in the last part of that first paragraph.... I don't expect you to have the numbers for what the federal costs would be on access to information requests, but certainly, if my memory is correct, when we had Environment Canada officials before this committee, I think there were something like 15 full-time personnel dedicated simply to processing access to information requests. There's a twofold reason for that. One is the sheer number of requests that are being made, but the other is the complexity in terms of having to dialogue with other departments and so on.
To follow up on the earlier question, would you suggest--I think your earlier response indicated this--that possibly we could expect a 50% reduction in the costs of continuing with the current system of access to information requests if we were to move to a more open data availability?