Over the last six years, despite a rising number of complaints, our office's funding and staff size have not increased. Without a doubt, we need more money in the form of permanent funding, to hire additional staff, instead of consultants, who, year after year, come, open files, but don't have time to close them. We need more permanent staff and the capacity to keep them.
That said, we can certainly achieve efficiencies. I was surprised to learn that many transactions are still paper-based, not just within our own office, but also with institutions. Ultimately, the ideal would be to transfer all file-related information electronically.
Our new online complaint form is very popular and has allowed us to electronically process complaints we deem as administrative, in other words, cases involving unreasonable delays or time extensions. Those account for 85% of the complaints we receive. Eventually, we also want to be able to electronically process complaints involving denied requests or the application of exemptions or exclusions. That would really be helpful.