Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will be opposing the amendment, and I'll outline the reasons.
As I indicated, and as Bill did as well, this is an extremely serious issue of rather urgent importance. As I alleged, there seems to be almost systematic behaviour across a number of departments. The investigation being carried out at the moment is more narrow than what we're proposing here.
I did ask the commissioner when she was before us the other day how long her process is going to take before it's completed. She said the last time they conducted an investigation such as that, it took three years. She said she was hoping to have that...so 18 months is her goal.
Mr. Chair, at best, it's 18 months on a much narrower focused investigation. Given the lack of transparency by the Government of Canada on so many fronts, the interconnections between several staffers in departments now, and an order from the Prime Minister's chief of staff, which in itself seems to imply there had to be something going on, I see this as an urgent matter.
I agree with what Bill said earlier. I have full faith in the commissioner. I think she does good work. We passed her estimates. But this is of a more urgent basis. She admitted that her timeframe is 18 months down the road.
The government must provide access to information as we see fit. We need to investigate whether there are violations of the act and staff interference in terms of proper information being made available.
For all those reasons, I oppose the amendment and I support the original motion.