Information & Ethics committee  That is an excellent question. To be honest, even if there were a lawsuit, the act provides immunity that protects the government if the documents are disclosed inadvertently or in error. The only way of making the federal administration accountable would be to clearly demonstrate bad faith.

Information & Ethics committee  To add to what my colleague said, I would simply note that the minister is always responsible for the federal institution. They are responsible for disclosure. It would be helpful to include a mechanism or something that would give the minister some oversight over the requests submitted.

Information & Ethics committee  I completely agree with my colleague. This is especially important since, when an information request is submitted to the commissioner, a recommendation is issued. In Ontario and Quebec, however, the matter is very often already at the quasi-judicial stage. To my mind, the requirement for quick action, which is characteristic of administrative tribunals, is truly indispensable.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I am very much in favour of the commissioner having quasi-judicial powers. That is already the case in Quebec. At the federal level, department heads move around and they do not necessarily have expertise, whereas the commissioner does. Why shouldn't we use that expertise and give the commissioner real powers?

Information & Ethics committee  Things need to be put in context. Very often, we consider only large companies as being very powerful bodies corporate that already have an enormous amount of power. But I forgot to mention one thing that I find important. Under the Access to Information Act, once a federal inspector inspects something or a company submits information to a federal institution, the principle is that it immediately comes under the federal institution.

Information & Ethics committee  Exactly. I might suggest reviewing the definition of trade secret, which remains vague, even in Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. v. Canada (Health). The court, itself, has said that it sometimes struggles with correctly defining what a trade secret is. A reform of the act should no doubt bring in legislative criteria that would help to better define what a trade secret is so that it is better framed in the future.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm going to talk about the issue of documents relating to ministerial offices. In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada decided in Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Canada (Minister of National Defence) that since ministerial offices did not appear in Schedule I of the act, they were not subject to it.