Information & Ethics committee  One of the things we have done and that we realize has a very positive impact is publishing our reports, because then we can refer Canadians or institutions to the way that we interpret the act. Sometimes it helps us resolve issues quicker. I'm hoping that our analysts out there

Information & Ethics committee  The annual report on ATIP, I think, is the problem. It needs to be changed into something that's very easy to enter into a database, with no reporting necessary.

Information & Ethics committee  As I said earlier, the report provides a very good description of all the issues, as well as some potential solutions, but it doesn't really make any recommendations on how to address the issues or say how the government plans to address them.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely, the costs will need to be verified, as they are with any action plan. That said, the report does provide a very good description of the current situation in the system.

Information & Ethics committee  In my view, our government really needs a declassification program, and that would be easy to implement. The Access to Information Act needs to be considered clause by clause and recommendations need to be made. That's not my role. You, the parliamentarians, have the role of leg

Information & Ethics committee  I have the expertise, I see what's not working and I put it in my report, along with recommendations, of course. You've also heard why it's not working from people who use the act. That's really the other step. I would also say that we need a better system for managing informati

Information & Ethics committee  It will take the resources to make it all happen.

Information & Ethics committee  It's been a pleasure.

Information & Ethics committee  Like anything, the staffing in government is complex, long and bureaucratic. There are a lot of steps, which is fine. I think what we need are pools. We have to keep those pools filled with candidates who are qualified and interested, so that it's easy for all the institutions to

Information & Ethics committee  Your constituent would have to make a complaint to my office for me to investigate why, after eight months, he or she is not receiving a request. That would be one of the complaints I'm dealing with, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  The change was made through Bill C-58 in 2019. The commissioner's authority was to issue recommendations to institutions. Now it has been changed. I can make recommendations, but I can also order disclosure or order that a certain time for disclosure be done. The change is trem

Information & Ethics committee  It's difficult to tell, because we are seeing more access requests and more delays. There is definitely a lot of information being provided, but there are a lot more complaints to my office as well. Canadians are asking for more information and, like I said earlier, until we do

Information & Ethics committee  My submissions speak for themselves, but what I think is very important is for this committee's report to come up with recommendations. I know that the act provides for parliamentary review of the legislation. I think this is something that needs to be taken on. The act should be

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. The Scotland government has in their act that the commissioner has access to the statistics every three months, so he can proactively go to the units that are struggling. Right now, I think the annual reports that are presented by the institutions are useless, because we see

Information & Ethics committee  I have to say that, until 2019, my office could only make recommendations. That was, I think, the biggest issue with the system, because for years, complaints resulted in simply a recommendation. The institution could ignore it unless my office took them to court. Now we are iss