Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, quasi-judicial powers mainly refer to powers to make orders in administrative cases, which would create an order-making power that would be like a quasi-judicial power. That is how I understand his response.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I don't think so.

Information & Ethics committee  That point is a little more debatable, depending on how the provision were worded. It could give us a quasi-judicial power because that requirement goes with the recommendation that we have order-making power for administrative matters. That would be an administrative matter, so it would be included.

Information & Ethics committee  If it goes together with an order-making power, yes, because it is an administrative matter. The two together might give us quasi-judicial powers.

Information & Ethics committee  That is my understanding.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the increase in capacity in training of ATIP professionals within the federal public service is a key administrative improvement that can be made. I would go further and refer you to the recommendations we made to the Treasury Board Secretariat in our special report of February 2009.

Information & Ethics committee  Having a parliamentary review was one of our recommendations, one of our 12 quick fixes. I think it's totally important to have a parliamentary review of important pieces of legislation as a matter of course.

Information & Ethics committee  I think this committee is the master of its own process and procedure; therefore, it is entirely up to this committee to make that decision. It is really not for me to comment.

Information & Ethics committee  What I said earlier, if I may clarify it, is that I definitely support the 12 recommendations. When we made them, in the spring, it was really what we call quick fixes, things to be done urgently. That doesn't mean that we do not support a more thorough-going reform of the Act. What is important to us, given that there is a minority government, is to have something quick and effective that could be put in place fairly quickly.

Information & Ethics committee  I think that all areas where public funds are spent should be covered by an access to information scheme. It is very simple: everywhere that funds are spent by the government, wherever it is, whether in administering the courts, in administering parliamentarians' expenses or in any body that uses public funds, the Act should apply.

Information & Ethics committee  The way I think about the Access to Information Act--I remember that Monsieur Marleau used this expression in his opening remarks in the spring—is the same way I speak about our legislation internationally: I consider our legislation to be the grandmother of legislation. So yes, it does have some fundamental tenets that are very well enshrined.

Information & Ethics committee  As I said before, we've added some institutions, but the compliance model has not been changed. There is no public interest override; there is no harms test; there is no order-making power; and there is no specific timeline for extensions or consultations. In my view, these are important amendments that we need to have.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not familiar with this case in particular, but the fact is that if there were to be a complaint to my office in relation to this matter, it would be confidential. I would not be in a position to comment. In surmising from the comments of the honourable member, it seems to me that there are ways within institutions to actually disclose wrongdoing.

Information & Ethics committee  Recent pieces of legislation at the international level have a very strong compliance model. When we talk about our act having a weak compliance model, this is what we are talking about. They have specific times for responding to requests and specific times for extensions. If you want to go beyond the extension provided in the legislation, which is usually a short timeline, you have to get approval or have a review to get a further extension.

Information & Ethics committee  We could provide you with more detail following this meeting, but I know that under their legislation there is a certain cost recovery system for commercial users.