Yes, the statement was found in the platform of the now governing party and perhaps, if I'm not mistaken, in the mandate letters of certain ministers.
Here, we're into one of the themes on the reform of the Privacy Act, transparency. I wholeheartedly agree with the objective of a more open government and more transparency. In the context of the Privacy Act, the most important manifestation of this is that the act should be clarified and amended to provide for more access, to circumscribe the exceptions to the extent possible.
What you referred to is less on the issue of law and principle, it's more on the question of pragmatic and practical access by people to information. Again, I applaud any initiative that would provide easier access by citizens to their personal information or to other information under the Access to Information Act.
We haven't been consulted on how this would actually occur in practice, so I applaud the principle and objective, but I'm not sure exactly what the government has in mind in terms of how to make this work in practice. I would suggest that perhaps you would wish to put these questions to Treasury Board officials if they appear before you.
It's the government that has the lead in determining how this will happen in practice and Treasury Board will provide you with more information than I can provide.