Justice office investigated over access to information
Alberta’s Justice and Solicitor General office is being investigated by the province’s privacy commissioner for repeatedly dragging its heels on information requests.
Since February, the office has been rapped over the knuckles eight times by the privacy commissioner for failing to meet the time limit on Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act requests.
The commissioner’s office said there are “numerous” more files that “raise similar concerns.”
The FOIP Act requires a public body to respond to a request within 30 days, or within the extensions allowed under law. Failure to do so is treated as a decision to refuse access to the record.
The commissioner’s investigation will review the department’s processing of requests, figure out why there are chronic delays and make recommendations to improve its FOIP operations.
In a statement, information and privacy commissioner Jill Clayton called the “systemic issue of not responding to access requests within time limits” a “significant compliance issue.”
“Access to information is a cornerstone of democracy, and my role is to oversee that the access rights of Albertans are being upheld,” she said.
Wildrose justice critic Scott Cyr said Tuesday that “consistently obstructive” delays by the Department of Justice and Solicitor General are nothing new.
Cyr said over the past 18 months, only three of the opposition’s 24 FOIP requests have been answered.
“This is by far the worst performing government department on FOIP issues,” he said in a statement.
He called on Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley to “immediately explain to Albertans why this practice persists across her department, and what the NDP government will do to fix it.”
In 2014, the commissioner launched a similar investigation into significant FOIP delays in various government ministries, but the documents provided were heavily redacted.
The office issued notices to produce the records it needed, but the then-Progressive Conservative government responded by taking the matter to court, where it remains.