Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to talk about the fees and costs. We should give that more thought. However, I think that one of the potential risks is to place the organizations that are subject to the Access to Information Act in a difficult position.
Let me give you an example of that. CBC, which is a crown corporation, is clearly limited in terms of the information that it can provide because it operates in a very competitive field with private companies. In 2011, Quebecor, its main competitor, flooded CBC with access to information requests. In the span of one year, 80% of CBC’s access to information requests came from one and the same requester. I think the number of requests was more than 1,000. That is a potential risk. The cost per request is $5. So that amounted to at least $5,000. So there is some deterrent effect, but it is not desirable for a private company to be able to flood the public entities that are subject to the Access to Information Act with access to information requests.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, has a competitor ever deliberately flooded a public agency with access to information requests with a view to harming it, to the point that it was not able to respond by the deadline?