Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you to all the presenters today. It was very informative.
I was going to ask this question of Mr. Drapeau, but I think I'll direct it to Mr. Mendel. I'm from Atlantic Canada too, so I'll throw some questions to Atlantic Canada.
Again, the presentations today were very good, but the more I hear.... I'm new to politics, and certainly new as an MP here, and I've become concerned and unsettled. You hear quotes like “slip into irrelevance”, “state of paralysis”, “two-year backlog”, “the act is applied to deny disclosure”, and “interests of government trump the interests of the public”. And then, Mr. Mendel, you talk about the RTI rankings, where we're 59th out of 102 right now, and falling.
In my past life I was president of a hockey team and several businesses. I just want to drill down again on culture. You can change a culture, but culture doesn't change overnight. It takes effort; it takes reinforcement. At times it can take many years to change a culture.
Mr. Mendel, why has there been such a culture of delay, or basically a culture that's just not right, with respect to this? Can you give me your opinion on that?
Then maybe if we have time, we'll shift over to Mr. Drapeau.