It was very clear in all of our requests for funding that the office simply could not—and it still cannot—manage its workload. When I started as Information Commissioner, we had 2,500 files in inventory. We managed to bring that down to about 1,700 files after three years, and then budget cuts started. As we speak, we now have more than 3,000 files in inventory, and it keeps going up. It takes close to a year before we can actually assign an investigation file to an investigator.
This is in the context of a fundamental democratic right. This is what the Supreme Court of Canada has stated. I don't make these rules; I'm just here to administer the complaints function, which is part and parcel of Canadians' democratic right to hold their governments to account. In a situation in which the funding of the office continuously was cut....
As well, it was very well known to the government that this was the situation. I tried every possible avenue open to me to secure additional funding, which was refused. Hopefully this situation will be corrected so that we can properly investigate cases in a timely manner.