Thank you.
I am impressing upon the business of government being more efficient and, of course—most importantly—more customer-friendly when appellants have these appeals. Again, it's tribunal versus courts.
I'm going to jump here now, with respect to the Privacy Commissioner: We heard that the Privacy Commissioner, to some extent, has an ombudsman-type role and advocates. I think what's more important, while they're advocating, is navigating—having those mechanisms available to them while they're trying to navigate based on what they're advocating. Again, in the best interest of the appellant.... I'm hearing that the tribunal versus the courts is more beneficial, especially—and I want to go back to this—with the ability, while you're navigating, to look at the opportunity to mediate and therefore come to some consensus, again, in fairness.
Some colleagues on the committee have cited the opinions of privacy commissioners about the tribunal, including the Alberta privacy commissioner. In your previous testimony, you mentioned there are key differences between the powers and responsibilities of the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner under the CPPA compared with provincial commissioners.
Can you highlight those differences and why they make having a tribunal so important? I really want to emphasize fairness to the appellant at the tribunal level versus the courts.