Liberals break vow on transparency

“We will make government information more accessible,” read the Liberals’ 2015 “Real Change” campaign book. “Government data and information should be open by default. We will update the Access to Information Act to meet this standard.”

Clear enough, no? And Justin Trudeau, back when he was in opposition, told supporters that, “We will make i nformation more accessible by r equiring transparency to be a fundamental principle across the federal government.” He claimed that former prime minister Stephen Harper had led the “most secretive, divisive and hyper- partisan government in Canada’s history.”

Also pretty clear. But that was then. How are the Liberals doing now?

Not great, it turns out. An audit of their time in office thus far, funded by News Media Canada — a consortium of 800 media outlets — found its record at providing timely and complete answers to properly filed access to information requests was, in fact, worse than during the Harper years.

The Liberals, of course, blame the Tories. They say they inherited a mess they have not yet been able to clean up. Simply blaming the last guy doesn’t cut it here: not only have the Liberals failed to move with any urgency, the bill they’ve put forward to amend the Access to Information Act — Bill C- 58 — actually results “in a regression of existing rights,” the federal Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault noted on Thursday.

In a st r ongly worded report, the commissioner criticizes the government for failing to deliver on a series of promises. “The government promised the bill would ensure the act applies to the prime minister’s and ministers’ offices appropriately. It does not,” Legault wrote. “The government promised the bill would apply appropriately to administrative institutions... It does not. The government promised the bill would empower the information commissioner to order the release of government information. It does not.”

This shouldn’t be complicated. Canadians — whether members of the media or private citizens — are entitled to access a wide range of federal documents, for a nominal fee, within 30 days of the request.

The ability to access government records is fundamental to good governance: the public must be informed of how the government acts, and what it spends.

As many reporters can attest, this standard is frequently not met: requests for data are fulfilled at a painful pace, and documents that are released are often almost entirely redacted, rendering the process meaningless.

It ’s a problem. Justin Trudeau used to agree, or at least said he did. What’s changed?