Information & Ethics committee  When we talk about open data, it means that members of the public can, for any number of reasons, innovate in a way that the State cannot. There are not many things that the State should not do, but there are many reasons why ordinary citizens can innovate in a variety of ways.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. The State should be doing many things to get young people involved. I don't have any solutions to propose, but I do believe private citizens have a meaningful role to play.

Information & Ethics committee  I want to be careful not to talk too many levels above my pay grade and start giving advice—

Information & Ethics committee  --but I can say what the outcomes should be. You asked what Canada's current level was. There are some departments at the federal level, namely NRCan, which I mentioned, who are doing excellent work, but they're the exception right now. Internationally, in comparison with many of its peers, Canada does not have a federal open-data effort; it does not have any sort of federal open government effort.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. I want to thank you for inviting me here. I'm very pleased that Parliament is conducting this study and I am honoured to contribute to it. I'm here because about six months ago I launched a site called openparliament.ca. I know that some of you have seen it and have said nice things about it, which I appreciate very much.