Information & Ethics committee  I would say no for now.

Information & Ethics committee  It is not applicable. To me the biggest problem right now, as far as the government is concerned, is information management. We are living in a digital age and the people in the government or the institutions are making decisions through email. There are a lot of email exchanges and that takes the most time to sort through.

Information & Ethics committee  It is everyone's responsibility and the law does not allow us to erase the company's information. The current problem is that no one sorts or cleans up the information. Decisions should not be made through email either. Decisions should be made with the help of documents, as they are in the case of financial expenses, where there is real decision-making that includes signatures and authorities who conduct audits.

Information & Ethics committee  We need to invest in training, staffing and resources. Some of the institutions that I'm talking to have the financial resources, but they can't find anybody. Consultants are very expensive. That's one of the reasons I want permanent funding. I'm hiring consultants on a year-to-year basis, but after March 31, I have to let them go.

Information & Ethics committee  We have to go through the Treasury Board application process just like any other institution. Ideally, even a provision in the Access to Information Act would allow me to come back here to committee to request additional funding, depending on the needs of that year. The Chief Electoral Officer and Mr.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. The only thing I currently need is more staff.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  No, the Access to Information Act currently does not allow us to stop an investigation. We have to see the investigation through for every complaint until we have addressed every aspect of the complaint. However, if Bill C-58 passes, that will give me the authority to stop investigations into frivolous complaints or complaints from people with ill will.

Information & Ethics committee  Section 23 is the section on solicitor-client privilege. It's a discretionary exemption. I think some of our most important work has to do with what factors are to be considered when we use discretion and how we review those cases. Often the discretion is well applied, but we have factors that are encouraging access versus other institutions that prefer more privacy or secrecy.

Information & Ethics committee  In December 2018, the online complaint form was launched. It's being used. It's a good tool and 85% of our complaints are now being done electronically, which is really helping us do our work. One issue with it is that it's a protected A system, so complainants are unable to upload documents that would be protected B, with personal information.

Information & Ethics committee  I would say that three-quarters of those amendments were requested by my office or by my predecessor. What I would say is that the current version of the act is definitely a better bill than what we have currently. The act right now is 35 years old, and what is being proposed in the amendments has made it better.

Information & Ethics committee  I think her call for changes has been responded to.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  The act still needs to be reviewed, and I'm really happy that one of the amendments is that there's going to be a mandatory review in a year and, after that, every five years, because as everybody knows, we haven't been consulted for Bill C-58. That's one of the issues. A lot of those amendments came after the fact.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm really hoping that Bill C-58 will be passed, yes, before....