Information & Ethics committee  It is certainly over a thousand a year. It is for public interest groups, for certain issues that I am involved in for trade unions, for co-operatives, for citizens who are having problems. I make a lot of requests. All I can say is that sometimes people appreciate that, and I don't think it is a matter of penalizing people who try to uncover safety problems, waste, and so on.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, but I'd rather have her not have exemptions.

Information & Ethics committee  No, that is not a fair question, sir.

Information & Ethics committee  We've had a late spring.

Information & Ethics committee  True enough.

Information & Ethics committee  Listen. I was around when Trudeau senior was around, and I was around before then, and I haven't seen most governments change in terms of their transparency level and so on. I treat people, any information, as an important feature, because when you uncover food guides that are lobbied by the food industry, when you uncover waste in terms of technology partnership programs, when you uncover asbestos which has been used by the Canadian government for years and years, these are things that should not be hidden.

Information & Ethics committee  Some crown corporations got covered under the Federal Accountability Act by Mr. Harper's crew, but they made a special deal, and they gave them even more exemptions than the current exemptions for commercial, and time restrictions, and so on. That's part of the problem. Part of the problem is that we need even further groups covered.

Information & Ethics committee  That's why I say you need a multi-transparency approach, because the people need to participate. One way you do it is through consultations and not just through accessing records. In the case of the Access to Information Act, and this committee is partly in the dark too, they have not announced exactly, to 2018, how they're going to handle that.

Information & Ethics committee  It's very important because ever since the act came in.... I heard Newfoundland took a few years to bring their record management up to speed in order for them to do duty to documents. Federally, our record management system is in shambles. Look at the Auditor General's report about the information management system of Shared Services Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, I don't think exempt staff in the minister's office should be part of the process, but let's face it; we hope shortly to have ministers' offices and the PMO covered by the act, so they're involved. I'll give you the example of Minister Dion and the Saudi Arabia case, wherein he claims he couldn't interfere with the access process, nor could his staff.

Information & Ethics committee  I have suggested an arm's-length arrangement. At this point I think you need a central pool, because many of the issues are complex and involve several departments. Access coordinators not only need independence, but they also need to facilitate access. Right now they're gatekeepers for fees, for time extensions, for spending their time blanking out information.

Information & Ethics committee  Since you pointed to me, I agree with you that legislators can be limited in what they do, but other countries, as I've pointed out, have done better, and have done things that put disclosure in a whole different light. Sweden started off with a culture of openness 250 years ago.

Information & Ethics committee  The Liberals are good at promising and not translating the promises of openness and transparency. Some $2 million a year is pretty pathetic, and when all it's going towards is a centralized, questionable web service for people to put in their applications with $5 and having to sign off on privacy claims, that system itself is broken with the 12 or so departments that are putting it in.

Information & Ethics committee  It requires broader context because corporations are the major users of the federal act and of most provincial acts, which may be an indication of something. Third parties, like corporations, are the ones who got special privileges written into this act, such as special notifications and other means.

Information & Ethics committee  No, it is more than that, sir. The fact of the matter is, if I just got from Bombardier the limited thing, what the loan was, I wouldn't get all the details of all the side deals that were made in this case. I wouldn't get all the actual material back and forth about the loans, and the other special arrangements made.