Finally, it boils down to one word: leadership.
When Mr. Obama got elected eight years ago, his first act upon reaching the White House was an executive order about freedom of information giving orders throughout the bureaucracy that from then on access was the key. The possible embarrassment to government was not at issue. Things changed dramatically from that time onwards.
Under the previous administration with Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno made it a rule that heads of agencies, which are similar to our departments, would also be assessed. For promotions, bonuses, and so on and so forth, their performance would be assessed on, among other things, the ability of their agencies to respond to access to information.
If our Prime Minister and the Clerk of the Privy Council were both to come out and say that they believe it's a quasi-constitutional law, that it is the law and they want everybody in the chain to be respecting and responding to it, there would be a change tomorrow, because people would say that there is direction from the top. At the moment, it doesn't exist.
What if the Clerk of the Privy Council were to say to his deputy minister that from here on in he would assess performance based on official languages, gender, and whatever happens from the Auditor General's reports, and so on and so forth, and on their performance as leader of their organization, but that access to information, including the number of complaints, the number of requests, and so on, would also be assessed? Overnight, the access to information coordinator would be called into the deputy minister's office and asked, “Do you need more resources and do you understand what your job is?” and told “Your job is to make me look good”. Then there would be a change.
At the moment, it isn't that way; it's almost the reverse: “I don't want to have any Globe and Mail story or stories being released through the disclosure of access to information records”. Those are the subtle, unspoken words. As a result, access is basically mired into inefficiencies.