Thank you very much for the question.
I think rebuilding trust is a vital step for this committee to be thinking about. One thing that can be done, I think, is to impose some limitations on the delays that are systemic in the system. Right now, the Access to Information Act permits open-ended extensions and consultations that can further exacerbate extensions.
In practice, what this tends to mean is that people who are seeking to exercise their right to know and to retrieve records that will help them to make informed decisions as part of a participatory democracy are just met with nothing—a silence—in many cases. I think I said this in my testimony in the fall: In a silence, people feel free to fill in the blanks in terms of speculation, conspiracy and ulterior motives.
Imposing some clear timelines that are actually followed and enforceable, I think, is a vital step to be made here.