Submission received by email on April 1, 2021 Subject: ATI/FOI reforms
Administer the Access To Information and Freedom Of Information process through a third-party, sub- judiciary branch that, like the rest of the judiciary, is at arm's length from government.

Give this branch subpoena and enforcement powers as means, when required, to obtain requested documents to conform to the law and within set time limits. Such a branch can also adjudicate cases where the requestor appeals a denied or limited request.

Make such a branch representative of Canadian society, ensuring regional, cultural, labour, media, and business interests are engaged.

Such a branch should also have the mandate, legal means, and authority to prosecute when an agency fails to abide by requirements to provide information or fails to provide it within required time limits.

Also give such an agency an educational component to assist both the public and any civil servant who requires knowledge of this area. These laws are complex, extensive and often confusing to the point of arcane. Increased public knowledge of both what is allowed and what is limited, and how the process works, will assist in streamlining a system that is not working as originally intended.

Paul Walton