Report thought to urge access reforms
After two years of consultation and submissions, Access to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault will table her special report on recommendations to modernize the Access to Information Act on Tuesday.
The report is not binding and cannot effect any actual change if the government decides not to implement the recommendations.
The Access to Information Act, which was enacted in 1983, has been criticized by experts for being outdated and having not been modernized for the digital age. The report is expected to be quite large and contain many recommendations on timeliness, accountability, maintaining records and information disclosure.
Currently, the information commissioners in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia can issue orders to force an organization to disclose information, but at the federal level there is no such requirement.
“The current system has no incentive to disclose information,” said Laura Tribe of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. “It is set up so that the government is currently positioned to benefit from asking for delays. Both from a communications perspective in terms of controlling the messaging of the information, but also just having the time to figure out what they want to disclose and what they don’t.”
Department staffing, resource allocation, and complications from the formatting of the gathering information are also cited as blocks to accessing information.
As well, heavily redacted documents or unco-operative digital file formats such as PDFs are sources of frustration for those who try to obtain information through official channels.
Duff Conacher, founder of Democracywatch.ca and visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, says that organizations don’t disclose information because currently there is no penalty for not disclosing.
“The power to penalize is key in any system where you want people to follow the law,” he said. “You not only need strong rules and strong enforcement, but you also need penalties to give them the incentive to comply.”
Tribe says she hopes the report will indicate the problems with the current system and the reasons the government needs incentives to give the public information.
“We recognize there are a lot of barriers on the government side to be able to process that information clearly, quickly and to disclose it in a format that makes sense,” she said.
“There’s an extraordinary amount of recommendations in this report that show from head to toe the Act needs to be thoroughly assessed and updated.”
Last November, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau tabled Bill C-613, a private member’s bill that proposed amendments to the Access to Information Act that would “raise the bar on openness and transparency, not just in Parliament but in government.”
His amendments would open the traditionally secret meetings of the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons unless the meetings “relate to security, employment, staff relations or tenders” or if unanimous consent of all the members is obtained.
The proposed amendments would also force organizations to provide detailed reasons for why they are delaying information. As well, the amendments would give the information commissioner more powers, such as forcing disclosure or allowing for a time-limit extension.