Many different attempts were made in past years with National Defence. Last year, with the previous deputy minister, we had an agreement to meet on a regular basis every two weeks, officials to officials, to clarify it.
One problem with DND is that sometimes we go there and they have the information in front of them; then, the week after, when we make—because we have to follow the process of sending a letter to the minister....
Your question was that now, with the new legislation, all the requests have to be addressed directly to the minister. We know the information is there. We address the information request to the minister, and they probably have the time to think about it and so on, and then information is no longer available or will not be provided.
We tried that. This year we are trying again with the new deputy minister, whom I met recently. We need to have this kind of gentlemen's agreement to have a frank, open discussion, saying, “If you cannot provide the information now, we will deal with it later.”