I'd agree with that. I think that over time, hopefully, as we become more open, and more information becomes available on the web, the actual number of requests will drop because people will be able to get access to things.
However, in terms of charging fees, one of the things that you and the government have to keep in mind is that if you're going to be bringing in some sort of charge where there's going to have to be administration and some sort of selection, it raises the question of how we apply this fee, who gets it, and how we do this. What we have now with the $5 is something that we've known about at least since 2009 when former information commissioner Marleau said the $5 cheques cost $55 to process. In 2009 it was $2 million, a $2-million loss based on the 40,000 requests that were received that year.
Before you go down the road of imposing new fees, I think you have to look very carefully at the effects, not just financial but in terms of access. We're in favour of having broader access for everyone. We can file information requests to the American government, and Ontarians or Newfoundlanders can file requests to the British Columbia government. We're talking about an open system. We should be more open.