Information & Ethics committee  Well, on the fee issue, certainly what we know anecdotally is that having no fee at all is not a good idea, but having a small fee is a good idea.

Information & Ethics committee  If you have a small fee, it's sort of more sensible, but as for going too high on the fees, I believe that some years ago Australia raised it to $100 and got no requests. They realized that was too much. I think one has to look at that very carefully. Whatever you want to do, you want to allow people to be able to use this process as widely as possible.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the principle of the legislation is already in the act. It just says that government information should be open, and individuals should have a right of access, and there should be independent review. Those are the standard principles. As well, if it's personal information, there should be protection of that.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it's an implication of the act, for sure.

Information & Ethics committee  If entities that are governed by this legislation know that there is this legislation, know that they have to be transparent, know that there are these principles of a quasi-constitutional nature, then they should be governing themselves in that manner. The senior levels of government and the senior levels of these agencies as well ought to have that as part of their mandate.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, now, that's a loaded question. I think there probably have been improvements. I'm not intimately familiar with the culture of this government as compared to others. I think all--

Information & Ethics committee  But I think culture is very important. When this legislation comes in, if at the top they exude an interest and reflect the significance of these principles, then that will be the message all the way. So I do think leadership is very important in achieving the goals of the act.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, this really isn't something that deals with abuse. Right now, section 9 is a bit antiquated. It talks only about two instances in which you can go beyond the 30-day timeframe. Now, maybe there aren't enough penalties in the system, in any event, to prevent departments from going beyond 30 days, as was mentioned earlier.

Information & Ethics committee  No, we didn't.

Information & Ethics committee  I believe the Bar Association did respond to the Federal Accountability Act and did support that.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, for example, in Ontario they go into schools, they go into libraries, and they educate people on their rights under the legislation and on what it means to be in a democracy and so forth, and it's very useful. It's one thing to have legislation that allows you to do something and then have only a very small percentage of the population that knows this.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, arguably, yes. But you know how if he's given a certain number of dollars and they ask what he's going to do with that money, he's going to have to fulfill the mandate that he's been given. And this isn't written in the statute at this time. It is in other jurisdictions.

Information & Ethics committee  No. I think it would depend on what he chooses to do, but that, to me, at least in our submission, is a separate question. I think it may be embellishing his website. It may be going out and speaking to other groups that he doesn't go to now. I don't know, but I think it's a laudable goal.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, if you look at this act as a business, it would probably be in receivership, so I don't know it's a business in the sense of return on investment. I think the return is not in dollars, but in enhancing public awareness of the legislation, and perhaps even openness of government would be a very good return if it's not expressed in dollars and cents.

Information & Ethics committee  I think we've heard other witnesses talk about how other countries perceive our country in relation to this legislation. I think if we had more awareness and maybe better legislation, then we'd have more pride in our democracy as being vibrant. That's something we can't put a dollar figure to, but I think it would be important.