I have had the privilege of working on both sides of the declassification file, from a national security standpoint and now as chief data officer for the government.
What I would say is that the pilot project has shown us some of the challenges of looking at historical files and declassifying them, and the kinds of resources it requires to do that work.
I would invite the committee, in the course of its review of the Access to Information Act and the report, to consider what recommendations it might want to make to us as we move into the action plan the minister referred to here. There is a need for some policy direction. When you look at what is happening in the international domain on declassification, there are some very rigorous policy set-ups out there. The U.S., in particular, has automated, systematic and mandatory declassification regimes.
I think we need to look at what options would suit Canada and figure out where it is we need to go in this space in order to set the right course for that action plan.