moved for leave to introduce Bill C-327, an act to amend the Access to Information Act (disclosure of results of public opinion polls).
Mr. Speaker, this private member's bill was previously Bill C-346 in the last Parliament and was originally tabled by the then hon. member for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Mr. Patrick Boyer, and I want to give him credit for it.
I am pleased to introduce this bill, targeting the disclosure of results of public opinion polls commissioned by the government. This bill would amend the Access to Information Act and force the government to disclose within a set time period the results of all public opinion polls which the government itself commissions. This bill would compel the designated minister to disclose the issues dealt with in the poll, the questions and responses, the time period during which the poll was conducted, the name of the person or firm who conducted the poll and the costs of the poll to Canadian taxpayers.
This bill will promote transparency of the government's actions and specifically its relation to pollsters. I would point out that had this bill been law the present Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food would have had to disclose the results of his polls on the Canadian Wheat Board rather than having them painfully leaked out to the public.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)