Minister will miss conference on openness
Budget keeps Treasury Board head from attending meeting as press reports reform delay
OTTAWA— Treasury Board President Scott Brison has cancelled his appearance at a government transparency conference on Thursday, saying Wednesday’s federal budget is preventing his attendance.
Brison’s office confirmed Tuesday morning the minister will skip a scheduled “fireside chat” at the Transparency in the 21st Century conference, which was organized by information commissioner Suzanne Legault.
“On Thursday’s event, unfortu- nately Minister Brison had to cancel his participation when we learned the budget would be tabled (Wednesday),” wrote Jean-Luc Ferland, a spokesperson for Brison’s office.
“As in every year, the federal budget day delivery . . . results in a week of scheduling changes for all cabinet ministers and indeed most members of Parliament.”
The Canadian Press reported Tuesday that the Liberal government is delaying promised reforms to Canada’s aging access-to-information system due to the complexity of those reforms.
The access-to-information system allows any Canadian citizen to pay a $5 fee to obtain internal government records.
It is commonly used by citizens, businesses, lawyers, academics and journalists to find information about government programs, spending and policies normally hidden from the public’s view.
The system was once considered to be world-leading, but is now criticized for excessive delays and censorship.
Almost one year ago, Brison said reforming the system — said to be a priority of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — would happen in two stages: “easy wins” the government planned to put in place in 2017 and a more comprehensive review no later than 2018.
“We feel we can move forward with some specific changes over the next several months . . . but that doesn’t obviate the need to do a deeper consultation in 2018,” Brison told reporters in March 2016.
There is now no timeline to introduce those “easy wins” — including opening up the Prime Minister’s Office, minister’s offices and federal courts to the system, as well as giving the information commissioner the power to compel the release of documents.
In a statement, Ferland said Liberals still intend a full legislative review of the access-to-information system “no later than 2018.”
Brison did bring in a directive last May to make some minor tweaks to the federal access regime, including waiving all fees for documents beyond the initial $5 application fee and directing all departments to re- lease information in the format requested. The “context” of the system was also changed to reflect the Liberals’ pledge to be “open by default,” an approach that treats government documents as the property of the public by default.
“We’ve sent a clear signal in terms of open by default and that increasingly, the onus will not be on citizens to say why they need the information, it will be on the government to say why citizens can’t have the information,” Brison told the Star last May.
The information commissioner’s office told the Star they were notified last Thursday that Brison could not attend the conference “due to parliamentary duties related to the budget.”