Mr. Chair, we have seen that at Foreign Affairs, as well as in the other departments which consult Foreign Affairs, when there are requests relating to section 13 or section 15, that is to say relating to international affairs, practices have developed to avoid the consulting institution having to obtain a deemed refusal. However, that institution is the one having to answer for its performance — if it replies on time. That is why we are very concerned by delays.
In such situations, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International trade as well as other departments will close part of the file, or even the whole file, and will advise requesters that they will disclose what they can and that, for the rest, there will have to be a consultation by the Department of Foreign affairs. If information is disclosed later on, they will get back to those requesters.
These procedures are a source of concern. Especially for us, if we have complaints and that the file is closed, the process becomes somewhat complicated. The issue is that this type of consultation usually takes a lot of time. What we hear from Foreign Affairs is that, when they have to consult foreign governments, those have no compulsion to answer in any given time. So, it is difficult for them to assess the time it will take to provide an answer.
What we do not know is what kind of follow-up there is by Foreign Affairs. Do they call back? Do they tell those foreign governments that they will disclose the information if they do not receive an answer within a given time? We have absolutely no information about this whole process of consultation. That is why we will have to have a closer look. As I said earlier, no statistics or details are available on this. It is not entered in the technological system and therefore we have no data on those consultations.