In terms of the demands, if we look at the 70,000 existing requests now in the system, let alone any new ones, with many of the requests my own office makes, we daily receive letters back from departments authorizing themselves delays of 180 days or 200 days to respond.
Then we have a choice: either we sit patiently by or we submit a complaint. If we submit a complaint, we know it's going to take us two years to get a response. So what do we do? We suck it up, and we're going to wait 180 days. Then, when we get the response, if they're not happy with it, then we may make a complaint. That's what we mean by the system is broken.
I cannot get requests or access to records through the formal process, and when I'm getting them, I cannot have access to the complaint process because it's chockablock full with the two, three, or four years' backlog.
Therefore, at the moment we beg them, “Would you please look at it.” In some cases I have a litigation file and I intend to fight them. I need these records now. Sometimes we receive it and sometimes we don't.