My position is that it should be aligned with progressive norms in terms of access to information, which is that it's essentially open to all. That's the standard in other jurisdictions, the standard of model laws, and that's what we think should be there.
Whether this would result in a massive increase in the level of access to information requests in Canada, it has not been the experience in other jurisdictions, although most of the newer jurisdictions don't have a before and after to compare it with, as we have. For instance, Mexico went open to all, and U.K. went open to all. These jurisdictions went straight to that level right away. In Canada, we would have a before and after.
The situation that's happening now is we do know that about 70% of their requests, if I remember correctly, are done through intermediaries in Canada, but they're actually requests from foreign countries and foreign individuals. I think the people from Citizenship and Immigration Canada testified to that when they appeared before the committee.
My sense of the system, from the requests, the complaints, that I see, is that this is currently how foreign entities or individuals in other countries are accessing their information. It is through information brokers or businesses and lawyers in Canada, mostly dealing with immigration, refugee, and visa status issues. I don't think there would be a significant increase, but if that's a concern of the government, and if Parliament decides that they don't want to go there, again, that is a policy decision.
We have the model laws. We have the international norms. We have our current situation. We know that we are already being accessed through intermediaries. The rest is an unknown. All we know is that in other jurisdictions, it has not created a massive problem.