Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. Of course, providing information is a fundamental activity. As the hon. member said, it has an impact at the level of our constituency offices. It goes without saying that, when we meet seniors in our electoral ridings, their questions are often varied and deal with various government departments. Seniors may come to us with health problems or problems in their dealings with Canada Post, Veterans Affairs or the Department of Justice.
It is obvious that, with a piece of legislation making communications between departments more flexible, where authorized to do so by the taxpayers, it will be much easier for us to obtain information from departments for one thing. The work of these departments will also be made more efficient by the fact that they will not have to access the data bank and request permission to have access to the information. Since it will be so provided in the legislation, departments that meet the prescribed requirements will have access to the information.
In concrete terms, this means that the taxpayers are bound to come out on top. As I like to point out now and then, our duty is indeed to serve the public, and personally, I will be able to serve the taxpayers much more effectively, efficiently and quickly.
In fact, by raising this question, my colleague puts his finger on the core issue of the access to information reform, he touches on the whole philosophy underlying this bill, a philosophy mainly centred on maximizing the efficiency of the federal administration.