Madam Chair, I am not an expert in terms of ministerial responsibility. I do understand, though, that the way the Access to Information Act is drafted, it does give the responsibility in most departments to the minister as the head of the institution, and under the legislation the minister is the person responsible.
I'll make two points. When, for instance, I issue what we call a section 37 letter under the legislation--this is something I instituted this year--which is the last step in my investigative function and through which I am looking for a final decision from the institution, I am addressing those letters to the ministers. And I have done so in three cases this year.
The second point I'd like to make on that is that as you probably all know, we have now before the Supreme Court of Canada the case that is often referred to as the “PM's agenda case”. I suspect that this case, which is slated to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in October of this year, will also shed some light on the issue of ministerial responsibility with respect to the administration of the Access to Information Act.