Archives vital to B.C. government
One of the casualties of the massive budget cuts of the first Campbell administration in 2002 were the B.C. archives. In a subsequent review of government expenditures, the responsibility for the archives was transferred to the Royal BC Museum without, of course, any funding. The museum was told to charge each department and Crown agency for material they placed in the archives.
Facing a charge of $454 per box of documents, departments and agencies transferred nothing. Since 2003, some 36,000 boxes of materials that should have gone to the archives have been stored in warehouses in Victoria at an annual cost of $6.72 per box. For the current year, that’s just under $242,000.
In addition, five departments (Forest, Lands and Natural Resources Operations, Health, Social Development and Social Innovation, Justice, and Children and Family Development) have almost 500,000 boxes (some, of which, are destined for the archives) in storage at an annual cost of more than $3.3 million.
Aside from the cost for warehousing, there are other downsides to these default arrangements. First, the storage facilities are not climate-controlled, so documents within each box are deteriorating. Some may be so adversely impacted as to be lost forever. Second, if there is a need to find records relating to a public issue during the past decade-and-a-half, that may be difficult, costly, very time consuming and often unsuccessful.
Even worse, electronic records are not even covered by the relevant act; it was passed in 1936 long before the development of computers. Given the almost continuous evolution of software languages in the past 40 years, this may well mean that some electronic records are now also lost forever.
Elizabeth Denham, the provincial Commissioner of Information and Privacy, commented in 2014 in A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management, “A lack of sound records management has impaired the ability of ministries to create, maintain and effectively use institutional memory. As a result, wheels are re-invented, the ability to audit decisions is compromised and the right of access is undermined.”
She went on to recommend an updating of the Act of 1936 and the adoption of integrated system of document management, both written and electronic, from creation to final decision on archival storage or destruction. This is a story with an upbeat twist. Miracle of miracles, the government has responded by introducing Bill 5, the Government Information Act, which will, in essence, replace the outdated Act of 1936 and put future records management on an up-to-date basis.
However, the commissioner has written to the Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services, who has responsibility for the bill. Denham says, while commendable, the bill could be improved by adding a provision for a legislated “duty to document” key government actions and decisions. “It is only when key government actions and decisions are documented that access to information regimes and public archives can be truly effective,” she said. Moreover, Denham recommends: — Independent oversight of the management of government information.
— Establishment of information management advisory committee to advise the Chief Records Officer on the approval of information schedules as to when documents can be destroyed or archived.
— The return of the archives from the museum to the government where they reside in virtually every other jurisdiction in Canada.
— The act should be extended automatically to all government agencies.
As Denham said, “Access to government information, and to an individual’s own personal information, are essential elements of a transparent and accountable democracy.” Hopefully, her recommendations will be accepted.
Most importantly the B.C. government and the museum have just reached an agreement that will transfer the 36,000 boxes of documents to climate-controlled storage and provide $400,000 annually to deal with the backlog. For that, the government should be congratulated.