Information & Ethics committee  There would be a set-up period, and of course there would have to be a time for the commissioner's office to change because it changes the nature of the office to one that is actually quasi-judicial. But what would happen is that the commission, rather than saying, “Dear Ministry

Information & Ethics committee  Independence and independence of mind of the ATI coordinators is vital; it's important. I'm not sure that the proposal to make them order in council appointees is the answer, because what we saw in British Columbia and in some other provinces is that what used to be bureaucratic,

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of the delays, what we have right now and what we saw with—I think it might have been Transport—in which the commissioner actually had to go to Federal Court and fight a battle over an 1,100-day extension that the government gave itself.... That's just not acceptable. At

Information & Ethics committee  It has to be substantial, and it has to be related to a government function; it's not just that you get money. I'm sorry, but I think we set that out, actually, in our response to the commissioner's consultation. We have a longer response there with the precise detail. We have

Information & Ethics committee  What we're looking at here is a way of actually helping the system in terms of making sure that what is going up is stuff that is actually useful. I think the commissioner's office could be a logical place for this to be, because what will happen is that if information is not a

Information & Ethics committee  This is something that came up before the last election with the provincial government, where there was discussion of how, in terms of attracting different groups of voters, the government could do things that would result in what they called “quick wins”, which then resulted in

Information & Ethics committee  It was ironic. The minister, of course, being from the other coast, is probably not aware of that. We thought it was an unfortunate term.

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of a risk, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I'd agree with that. I think that over time, hopefully, as we become more open, and more information becomes available on the web, the actual number of requests will drop because people will be able to get access to things. However, in terms of charging fees, one of the things t

Information & Ethics committee  There seem to be two parts to the question. One is commercially sensitive information, which has its own exemption under the act. That gets applied, and should be applied in the normal way, hopefully by the commissioner with order-making power. In terms of expanding the scope,

Information & Ethics committee  They operate as an exemption.

Information & Ethics committee  She's only able to make recommendations. She can't order something to be produced.

Information & Ethics committee  I'd just like to follow up on that with a couple of things. One is that your equivalents in British Columbia yesterday came out with a recommendation that the B.C act be amended to include a written duty to document, and to include it in the Freedom of Information and Protection

Information & Ethics committee  What we're talking about here is not throwing open the doors of cabinet. We're talking about protecting the legitimate interest with an exemption, the same way other important interests, such as national security specifically, are protected. What we have right now is a blanket c

Information & Ethics committee  I believe there are two parts to your question. One relates to fees as a way of dissuading requesters, and the second part is the actual proposals for some sort of legislative change related to frivolous and vexatious. We actually prefer the second aspect. We think fees are not