Early on in our committee's work we heard from representatives from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and the Department of National Defence, which are the recipients of the most ATIP requests by some margin. There were concerns about their ability to process requests in terms of human resources. I seem to recall that each department, probably about 1% of each department, is devoted to dealing with information requests. We've also heard much in the way of the need to change culture. We've heard it today. We've heard almost every day about the need to transition from a culture of secrecy to one of openness by default.
In part, the way we can most clearly address the need for openness by default is perhaps proactive disclosure. Some have commented that the existing problems with backlogged information requests and the challenges these departments have in processing these requests owe to our not being open by default and not proactively disclosing information. If we were and did proactively disclose information, we wouldn't have as many requests to process and we could make this whole system much easier.
Along with the change to your model in Newfoundland and Labrador, what has happened at the actual department levels in terms of proactive disclosure and establishing the culture of openness by default?