The reason I'm really not a proponent of having an ability to decline to process a request if the information is already available is based on experience at our office. There is a similar provision now. It's in section 68.1. Basically, if something is already published or is about to be published, the government can decline to process the request. It's an inclusion to the application of the act.
What we found in our investigations is that sometimes information is published on the Internet, or sometimes the information is published but is extremely difficult to find. We've had to urge institutions to disclose the information anyway. That's why, in that particular recommendation, I said that it should be at the discretion, because at least they can consider if the information is public but the actual requester cannot access it easily, it's just a question of assisting the requester.