Madam Speaker, I thank all members who have spoken today, in particular the member for Wentworth—Burlington for his example. That example is probably what it is all about. While there are many things I would like to say in conclusion, I think that says it all. While the member was talking about the CBC, I could make exactly the same statements about the wheat board and other crown corporations in my constituency.
While working on this for some six years now, I discovered that the criteria for a crown corporation being subject to the Access to Information Act was not under the jurisdiction of the information commissioner or the justice department, but under the jurisdiction of the governor in council. In other words, the cabinet decides which crown corporations are subject to the Access to Information Act and which ones are not.
I do not believe that in a day when we pride ourselves on being democratic and when we pride ourselves on going around the world democratizing other countries, that it is acceptable to have our openness subject to the decision of just the cabinet. As we have more crown corporations because of government downsizing, it is time to open this up. Yes, we should protect competitiveness and those kinds of things, but that is a lame excuse for not having crown corporations open to the Access to Information Act.
In 1994 I was told by the then justice minister that this was about to be changed. I was not to worry. We would not have to work on access to information for more than another year and it would all be opened up. That has not happened. We are still waiting. Canadians are waiting. As we into the 21st century, I think it is critical that government open up and let people know what in fact their tax dollars are being spent on.