Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to follow up on that, because I am not convinced that this is enough.
You're saying that if proposed section 79.4 is passed, it will become law, and departments will be forced to provide the information. It's as if we were including an offence in the Criminal Code, and the citizens of Canada weren't allowed to commit it, but there would be no penalty for the offence. I think that's a problem. There would be legislation that would clarify that obligation, but there would be no recourse if the departments decided to stonewall.
Take the Canada Revenue Agency, for example. A senator had asked for the tax gap to be calculated. It is a fairly complex process, which requires a lot of information from the Canada Revenue Agency. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has repeatedly been denied the cooperation of the Canada Revenue Agency. He was forced to tell the honourable senator that he could not respond to his request because he had not obtained CRA's cooperation. Things stopped there; the Parliamentary Budget Officer has no other recourse. He was forced to accept the fact that a department or agency was deciding not to cooperate. The fact that the department is forced to do so under the legislation doesn't change anything.
In that context, would you be open to the idea of a mechanism that would allow the Parliamentary Budget Officer to legally require departments to cooperate, a mechanism that would impose penalties if they refused and would block access to information?