Thank you very much for this opportunity.
This is one of the reasons I created the database of every ATIP news story produced by ATIP requests since 1983. That's over 6,000 of them, which demonstrates to the public the value of the ATIP system and the danger of losing it—which we have now with newsrooms sometimes cut back in half, newspapers with bankruptcy and massive industrial decline. Some of that will be picked up by freelancers and new digital media, but far less than before.
It's a double whammy: the industry under strain, plus the ATIP system failing so much.
The question was raised about the problem of delays. Yes, I've had stories quashed because of delays. The information was no longer relevant. The major problem is that in our ATIP law, the reply can be extended for an unspecified “reasonable period of time”, with no day limit set. That could mean anything to anyone. It's a blank cheque. That allows it to be extended, potentially, forever. That's a part of the law that most nations with FOI laws would never accept.
Also, the average response time in most FOI laws in the world is two weeks. That is half the level of the initial response time of 30 days in our ATIP law. Even much poorer countries with weak administrative systems respond much more quickly. Sometimes, it's a week or two.
It's a question of political will, usually. It's not always resources.