Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't really speculate as to political motives.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think from what we see I can't make a generalized statement that the government is not complying with the spirit of the Access to Information Act. What I can say is if we look at the government statistics year over year in terms of the number of requests where all information w

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was about 40% in the year 2000, and we're now down to 16% in terms of the requests where all information was disclosed. So this is not just the Conservative government. This is a longstanding matter. What I'm concerned about is that this trend is not being reversed. In term

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My comment was not that this government must do that, but that all governments must do that, constantly. That way we would see a reversal in that trend.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. I can say that it was even less than that. The budget has more than doubled certainly since I've been both assistant commissioner and commissioner at the OIC.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What are the best practices in provincial and territorial institutions? Mr. Chair, it's a very lengthy answer, I'm afraid. The short answer to the honourable member would be that, in my view, the federal government would be wise to look at the provinces and the territories. Some

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, they have different models. Some models have order-making powers, some of them don't. In Canada there hasn't been, to my knowledge, a really good study of the various pros and cons of the various models. You have the Quebec commission, which is a completely different mode

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As regards your first question, that is really a matter involving the parliamentary process. There are certain things you can do. That is what you are involved in here today, and that is what the Speaker of the House did when he made certain rulings. It really is up to parliament

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First of all, what goes on in Parliament is a matter for parliamentary procedure. My responsibility is under the Access to Information Act and complaints that are made and the investigations that I do into these complaints. What I have on the go now has been a matter in the pub

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I do agree.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My budget is not quite $12 million. I just don't have the correct figure. The reason I'm saying that is because we did get emergency funding from the government this year in order to deal with our cases.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is about $12 million in total--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  --including employee benefits and so on.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  For this year, it's part of that. I mean, $400,000; it's either $12.4 million or somewhere around there. I can get you the exact figure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.