The statistics that we need to assess the performance of individual departments are collected by Treasury Board and the departments themselves. They're already suspect. It's also a very poor data collection system methodology.
Many of the statistics that we read, such as the one the minister cited last week, are not reliable and are in fact misleading. We need to have metrics that are independent and reliable to assess the performance of individual departments. As it is, it's masked.
The minister said last week that 70% of requests are answered within the legislated timelines. That is very misleading, because legislated timelines include these crazy extensions, which often last for a year or more.
Yes, the system looks somewhat good at 70% until you consider that it includes all those enormously long timelines to answer those requests. The minister gave us a good example of misleading statistics that make it look like the system is working, when in fact it's not.