The change was made through Bill C-58 in 2019. The commissioner's authority was to issue recommendations to institutions. Now it has been changed. I can make recommendations, but I can also order disclosure or order that a certain time for disclosure be done.
The change is tremendous, because when we only made recommendations our office felt that it had to negotiate. For a long time, there was a lot of negotiating with institutions, because we were worried that the requester would not get what he or she was asking. We realized that it created long delays. We didn't have the power to really work with the institution and make it happen.
Now, with the order, we don't negotiate anymore. We ask for representations and we ask why they are late or why an exemption has been applied. If we don't agree, we agree to disagree and the order is issued. Now the institution has to respond to the order. It's a lot quicker and it's a lot more efficient.