I personally don't feel that exclusions are necessary. I feel that discretionary exemptions suffice.
As I mentioned in last year's special report, once we look into how institutions newly covered by the act are performing, we see that crown corporations make frequent use of their exclusions. You need only compare general statistics regarding the CBC with those regarding the government. Cases where the CBC disclosed no information to requesters under the exclusion account for 20% of all requests, which is very high. By comparison, the same cases represent about 2% to 3% of requests made across government. It seems that a dynamic is emerging where the exclusion leads to a low rate of disclosure to requesters.
In my opinion, that is not an optimal situation. That is why I suggested these changes. Of course, the specific provisions that apply to journalistic sources are completely appropriate. There are no concerns when it comes to that. However, I think that the problem has to do with where exactly those provisions fit in the act.