Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. I can’t answer the specifics of your question. I would imagine and hope that questions of this nature would have been posed to officials when they appeared at the various committees looking at Bill C-19, and more than that, I will certainly make inquiries, Senator Duncan, in the event that the bill receives third reading vote this week as planned.

Senator Gold: I will have to make inquiries as to the nature of the contracts, as well as the nature and extent of the requests. As senators will undoubtedly know, one request can encompass a desire to access thousands if not millions of documents, which may or may not be easily accessible and would have to be reviewed under the appropriate circumstances. So again, as dramatic as the figure seems, I will have to make inquiries and provide proper factual context for the answer.