This is also a recommendation in the report.
We've had the triple-delete incident in B.C., but before that there were the gas plant emails in Ontario. We also conducted a special investigation into the use of PIN-to-PIN communications in the federal government. There's documented evidence that there is information that should be preserved and be accessible to Canadians for accountability purposes that is either being destroyed or is not being created.
This is a key issue. It's particularly easy in the context of new technology, and that's part of the challenge that we have to deal with. In my view, the duty to document does not provide more cumbersome obligations to the government and to public servants than they already have, because they already have an obligation to document their decisions and their key actions and to preserve the information that needs to be preserved. That obligation exists in policy.
I put that into the report, but also my colleagues across Canada also did a joint resolution on that issue. We need a proper legal duty to document, so we need to heighten the level of the obligation from a policy obligation to a legal obligation. My colleagues and I are recommending to also have proper consequences for non-compliance with issues. This would apply to people who go into a meeting and don't take notes or to people who say not to document this information or to PIN them so that there is no lasting record. This is now becoming a way of conducting business in governments, and it needs to be addressed properly in a modern piece of access to information legislation.