Information & Ethics committee  That's the one that really distinguishes us from the Australians, the Americans, and the British in terms of their initiatives. We have our own security policies in the government. We have our own copyright issues. We have our own data sets of information already, and our citizens may be interested in different sets of information.

Information & Ethics committee  It is different, and each of the other jurisdictions has interesting lessons to learn from us. The U.K. and Australia are Westminster models, so they have perhaps similar issues with cabinet confidences and other types of information. Parliamentary privilege issues would be very similar.

Information & Ethics committee  For instance, in relation to the stimulus spending, the difference would be, say, that if you really wanted to conduct your own analysis of the spending, you would have access to the data. You wouldn't have access simply to knowing that the government spent so much money on this project at this certain place and have a document that states that.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, indeed, the Quebec regulations and... In fact, the Quebec legislation is more recent than Canada's. It better satisfies international requirements with regard to access to information. And the regulations list several elements that must be disclosed by Quebec institutions.

Information & Ethics committee  I think one of the key things to understand, at the federal level particularly, is that the term “proactive disclosure” in the federal government—and I know because I've been told this specifically by the Secretary of the Treasury Board—means what is mandatory disclosure, what you find on federal department websites, which includes travel expenses, hospitality, contracts, and so on.

Information & Ethics committee  They're using “smarter government” in the U.K. Aside from what I've just said, I'm not very familiar--

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chairman, I think this question should be put to someone else.

Information & Ethics committee  Since July 1st, 2009.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chairman, last summer, when I became interim commissioner, I published a statement indicating my plan with regard to systemic investigations. Through these systemic investigations, I was to deal more specifically with the matter of consultations and extensions granted by various departments, because I was of the belief that the performance report cards were insufficient with regard to providing us with all of the necessary information.

Information & Ethics committee  No.

Information & Ethics committee  I've given this presentation to the Canada School of Public Service, and we've had more specific discussions with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, but more related to specific access to information, proactive disclosure issues, rather than this open government initiative.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I have not.

Information & Ethics committee  It's a very good question, and really, Mr. Chairman, I'm always very leery to compare jurisdictions. I think we have to extract some of the good principles and some of the ways they're moving forward, but each has their own issues. For instance, in the U.S. it went through very fast; there were very tight timelines.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  There has to be a commitment from the people who have decision-making power in terms of deciding that an open government strategy is part of the priorities of this government. Really, in my view, it has to come from the Prime Minister and the government. Also, it has to be then implemented by senior officials within each federal institution.