Thank you, gentlemen, for coming here today.
I don't want to belabour the point, but I think something that's come up through many other meetings is the question of fees. I want your opinion on that. Minister Brison has said that he would be willing to look at not charging the $5.
Let me give you a couple of scenarios and maybe you could comment.
One of the things we're studying is to make sure that the access to information is not only open to Canadians but is open internationally. Obviously, Canadians have paid for the service and they've paid for the infrastructure. I know that in Newfoundland they've changed the model in the sense that if you're requesting personal information there's no charge, but if you're requesting any other type of information there's a limit on how much time the person who's fulfilling the access to information request can spend doing the research to find the answer. I think that in Newfoundland it's 15 hours.
Do you believe that Canadians should have access to information within a prescribed period of time? As you know, requests for information can be simple or can be complicated. Should there be a limit on that time, and above and beyond that time should there be a charge? To level the playing field, especially since Canadians are paying for this regime, should we charge people internationally for access to information requests?