Information & Ethics committee  I apologize, I just want to make sure I understand your question. Are you talking about in terms of a determination of whether a request could be declined to be processed because it's frivolous or vexatious, or—

Information & Ethics committee  On cabinet confidence, currently it's not subject to the act, so it's outside of the Information Commissioner's purview. Again, that's something we could be looking at in a future review of the act, but right now it's—

Information & Ethics committee  Under the existing system, if a requester asks something from a department and isn't satisfied that it has been provided, essentially they have recourse to the Information Commissioner, who can help to investigate the situation and who today has a recommendation power and would p

Information & Ethics committee  It's something that we are aware the Information Commissioner is keen to have the ability to report. As the bill is proposed, this would be done through her annual report. She would be able to provide transparency concerning the orders she has issued and her reasons, and their re

Information & Ethics committee  The focus of what has been brought forward in Bill C-58 is strongly aligned to the government-specific mandate commitments. That question of exclusions versus exemptions is something that can be considered in that first full review of the act, which would be one year within the

Information & Ethics committee  As I understand it, the order-making power does have the force of a statute. It's not explicitly written within the act, but in fact it's inherent in the bill.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, we are thinking very much about process improvements, and we're recognizing that there is that increasing pressure year over year in terms of the number of requests and the volume of material that departments are processing. One thing we proposed in the bill is to enable ins

Information & Ethics committee  The proactive disclosure that would be applied to ministers' offices and the Prime Minister's Office is a new provision, so we would not have an existing comparison in terms of requests to ministers' offices that we could align to the proactive disclosure requirement.

Information & Ethics committee  I can add to that. What Minister Gould was speaking to was the fact that we know that people are interested in receiving this type of information. For example, the proactive publication of briefing notes is something that has been done as a best practice at the Treasury Board Sec

Information & Ethics committee  Our intention, in the way that the bill is worded, is actually that we would not require that additional step, and in fact her order would have the weight of a court order. If her order was not being followed, she would be able to seek mandamus, in other words, an order to enforc

Information & Ethics committee  We looked at statistics from provinces and territories which, for the most part, have information concerning frivolous requests. We found that less than 1% of requests were deemed to be frivolous.

Information & Ethics committee  May I add to this? The matter of advice to cabinet is an exclusion, so that is something that is not subject to the act. The advice to a minister is an exemption, so there is discretion that can be applied by the institution concerning the release of that information. Advice to

Information & Ethics committee  I think a regulatory framework can provide a more nimble approach to adapting in a fast-moving area, but what's also important is ensuring that the regulations are reviewed and kept up to date. I speak of that because we have existing regulations that are not reflective of today'

Information & Ethics committee  I think the evidence right now is that we're challenged to meet the 30-day deadline that we have. I believe about 61% of the requests are currently meeting the 30-day standard. It is difficult for me to imagine precisely how we would move to a one-day turnaround under our current

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, it would. We've talked a lot this morning about improving access to technology that helps us to be well organized to respond to requests. We've talked a little bit about planning to be open from the beginning of the creation of information so that we don't need to screen it