Each of these institutions had really serious performance issues, for different reasons.
In the case of CBC, when they first became subject to the act, they received an enormous amount of requests—over 500. They really did not anticipate getting so many, and it caused a delay and a backlog in their office. The second thing with the CBC is that the provision that applies to CBC in the act says:
This Act does not apply to any information that is under the control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that relates to its journalistic, creative, or programming activities, other than information that relates to its general administration.
In the case that is before the court—and of course I cannot go into detail because it is to be heard in the Federal Court of Appeal on October 18—they're saying that I do not have the right to review the documents that are subject to the request because the act does not apply. I'm saying that I have the right of review in order to determine whether they're applying this provision appropriately. So that's the nature of the case.
That being said, this language seems to come from the Broadcasting Act. It hasn't been tested under access to information. We will have to see. I anticipate that we are probably going to have a lot of litigation over the interpretation of this provision over the years.
Canada Post is a different issue. My view, and I expressed this to the head of Canada Post yesterday, is that they don't have a proper delegation order in the organization. Everything needs to be reviewed at the very high level, which is contrary to Treasury Board Secretariat best practices. The ATIP coordinator should be able to make decisions on the release of information. You can ask the president of Canada Post why he's keeping it this way. I think it's leading to a lot of delay. That being said, again, Canada Post was given a specific provision in the act. It's a crown corporation. What does it mean in the context of a crown corporation?
By the way, each crown corporation has a different makeup. CBC is not funded in the same way as Canada post and not in the same way as VIA Rail. These provisions that apply to them look at their competitive market or their commercial interests. They're all competing in different markets. I used to do antitrust, and each market is going to be different. Snail mail is going to be a market. Courier mail is going to be another market. It's generating a lot of complexity, sir, in the analysis.
Again, there is probably going to be a lot of litigation before we have full understanding of the meaning of these provisions.