Access to info bill a step back: watchdog
Ombudsman says changes will worsen file access
OTTAWA • A government bill that is supposed to increase transparency for Canadians would actually do the opposite, the federal information watchdog said Thursday.
In a report presented to Parliament, information commissioner Suzanne Legault said the bill to amend the Access to Information Act would take people’s right to know backwards rather than forward.
Legault, an ombudsman for users of the access act, has long advocated strengthening the 34-year-old law that allows people who pay a $5 application fee to ask for federal files ranging from expense reports to briefing papers.
But in her first substantive comments on the proposed legislation, introduced in June, Legault said the measures fail to deliver on Liberal election promises.
“If passed, it would result in a regression of existing rights.”
The bill severely limits the right of access by creating new hurdles for requesters and giving agencies new authorities to refuse to answer requests, Legault said.
“It will make things significantly worse, and this is what’s so disheartening,” she said. “There was such an opportunity.”
Legault made 28 recommendations to improve the legislation.
A coalition of leading civil society organizations, including Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and the Halifax-based Centre for Law and Democracy, called Thursday for the government to withdraw the “inadequate” bill and start over.
Conservative and New Democrat MPs have also criticized the legislation for falling short of Liberal promises.
Jean-Luc Ferland, a spokesman for Treasury Board President Scott Brison, defended the bill Thursday as the first real advancement for the law since it took effect in 1983. But he added: “In our discussions with the commissioner, we have come to understand that clearer language may help allay her concerns.”
Under the access act, departments and agencies must answer requests within 30 days or provide a good reason why more time is necessary. Many applicants complain about lengthy delays in processing requests as well as blacked-out passages — or entire pages — in records that are eventually released.
In addition, dozens of agencies with federal ties fall outside the act.
The government has not fulfilled its promise to extend the law to the offices of the prime minister, cabinet members, senators, MPs and administrative institutions that support Parliament and the courts, Legault said.
Instead, these offices and institutions would be required to regularly release certain types of records, such as hospitality and travel expenses and contract information.
The bill also backpedals on a promise to give the information commissioner genuine power to make orders about the release of records, the report said. Although the commissioner would have new authority to issue orders about the release of records, federal agencies could challenge those orders in wide-ranging Federal Court hearings, which often go on for years.
The bill also reintroduces the possibility of various processing fees that were scrapped last year.