At the Office of the Commissioner, we have made a lot of efforts to improve our processes and become more efficient. Unfortunately, we give institutions less time to respond. There is less back-and-forth in the processing of files, precisely because we want to make sure that we respond to the person who has been waiting for several months. We've set very tight deadlines, and we don't hesitate to go so far as to issue an order. I didn't have that authority prior to 2019. It allows us to deal with a issue when we need to.
In a sense, we don't have more resources, but the pressure we've put on and the efforts we've made to be more efficient have allowed us to do more with fewer people.
I'm really concerned about the access to information units within government institutions. If they're forced to make budget cuts, people won't be able to respond to us during our investigations and there will be additional delays in responding directly to complainants.
In principle, we should not receive complaints. People should receive their response without needing to file a complaint. If there are fewer employees to respond to access to information requests, that will lead to additional delays and more complaints. We have no way of forecasting the number of complaints. We can manage our process, but we can't manage what comes to us from the government. I'm very concerned about what's coming in the next few years.
