This is the best summary I could come up with:

By enabling Canadians to submit requests for records held by government institutions, these laws facilitate an open discussion of governmental operations, and help to promote transparency and accountability.

What’s more, over time, a culture of complacency has begun to take root in many of our federal institutions, which treat access to information requests as nuisances, disregard legal obligations, and tolerate undue delays.

The COVID-19 pandemic played a big part in exposing the deficiencies across the system, to the point that our elected representatives finally felt compelled to examine these issues more closely.

Stakeholders across the board, including access to information and privacy (ATIP) practitioners, have asked for additional resources, modernized tools and further legislative changes.

With the government now engaged in a cost-cutting exercise, senior leaders within our federal institutions must remember that access to information is both a quasi-constitutional right and a legal obligation, and must be treated as such.

In my capacity as information commissioner, I have pledged to use all the tools at my disposal, including issuing more orders and seeking recourse through the courts when institutions fail to uphold Canadians’ right to access.

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