They are designed to improve service to the public and cut the costs of government. SOAs are, however, still a full part of government, meeting the Standing Committee's criteria, and one of the bureaucratic impediments that should not be lifted from them is the Access to Information Act . This throws us back on the original recommendations of the Standing Committee. This recommendation has the advantage of inclusiveness. It makes it much more difficult for Ministers and bureaucrats to except an institution from coverage simply by not putting a provision in a governing piece of legislation or failing to pass the requisite Order in Council.
Parliament has to make a specific decision to exclude a body.
Its disadvantage is that no schedule or list is required. Such an instrument is necessary to inform the public which institutions are actually covered by the Act. That Parliament be asked to include in amended legislation coverage of the Senate, the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament and all parliamentary agent bodies, but excluding the offices of Senators and Members of Parliament. That where the federal government controls a public institution by means of a power of appointment over the majority of the members of the agency's governing body or committee, then the Access to Information Act should apply to it. That provision be made in the Access to Information Act for the removal from the official schedule maintained by the Department of Justice of institutions which are defunct or for some other reason are no longer subject to the legislation.