First on the question of security and privacy, I'll just say that ultimately I think it's possible to have both, and that position informs quite a few comments that I have made, whether it's about Bill C-13 or Bill C-44. I think security is obviously very important, and legislators should act to protect the public, but it is possible to have both security and privacy and not one at the cost of the other.
As to the question of my overall resources, if I understand correctly, and whether there are enough resources to do the job, with all the tasks, obviously there are important work pressures that we're facing. My starting point on the question of whether we have sufficient resources is, of course, that I will try very much to achieve our mandate within the budgets allocated to Parliament because, of course, these moneys come from taxpayers and I want very much to be able to achieve our goals within these budgets.
That being said, there are important work pressures, and I'll just name a few. First of all, the number of complaints that are made under the Privacy Act and PIPEDA is growing continually. The government has an ambitious policy agenda, which means that we're called upon to comment on legislation, but also we're called upon to make comments to departments on the proposed procedures and policies. The rapid evolution of technologies in the private sector also, of course, creates privacy risks that we have to react to. As I've indicated to your colleague, it's important to ensure that individuals are able to exercise control over their information, which implies that we have an important public education role that is part of our role. So these are the work pressures.
At this point, I would say that I'm still assessing, frankly, whether we have enough to achieve all of these objectives, but I will try as much as possible to do that. In part, what is at play, given the work pressures, is that we have to be constantly looking for new and efficient methods to do our work. This is something that the OPC has done over the years, and we're still very much in that mode. For instance, investigations, which constitute roughly 50% of our work, are the subject of more efficient processes, for instance, that use early resolution as opposed to a full-fledged investigation into complaints. We're trying to have more efficient methods, and this is working. Productivity is up, there are more files being closed in the office than ever before, but unfortunately, the growth in complaints exceeds the growth in our productivity. That's an issue we have to tackle.
In particular, the number of complaints made under the Privacy Act is growing. Our response times to these complaints is also growing because of the phenomenon I was describing: the growth in complaints exceeds the growth in productivity. In early 2015, we will launch an audit into the activities of that branch to see whether it could be possible to be even more efficient than we are currently.
Essentially, there are important work pressures. My objective is to work within the budget that was given to me. At this point I'm not asking for additional moneys. If I come to a different view, I will let you know.