No. If somebody makes an access request to an institution, there is a fee, and there are charges that apply for photocopying, searches, and so on. There are no fees to complain to my office. When we take matters to court, as a matter of general practice we don't ask for costs. We're usually pitted against government institutions anyway, so it all goes back to the consolidated revenue fund. I don't think it makes sense to ask for costs.
My experience with fees is that they do not act as cost recovery; they do not act as a good discipline in the legislation. They are probably one of the biggest inefficiencies that we see in the system.
I have a case that I will report on in my annual report that deals with a fee of less than $500 that was charged by a government institution. It had to go through the whole complaint process, all the way up to the minister. That's completely inefficient. That should have been waived.
It costs the system and the taxpayers more to charge those fees than to answer the request. It would be simpler. For me the fees in access to information will never act as cost recovery. In my experience, I think they cost the system more in terms of financial accounting in government, because of the complaints, the delays, and the processing of the fees. I think somebody should study this, because it is not useful as cost recovery, and if we want discipline, we should look to other legislative mechanisms in the law to prevent nuisance actions.