Feds could be more open: review

The federal government should make “robust reforms” to the Access to Information Act to finally bring the law into the 21st century, says an independent report card on Canada’s transparency efforts.

The review released Thursday also calls for specific funding of federal openness commitments, better takeup of advice from interested parties and more co-operation with First Nations on transparency issues.

The report was conducted as part of the Open Government Partnership’s evaluation scheme, which does progress assessments for each of the global partnership’s 75 member governments, including Canada, which began participating in 2011.

Michael Karanicolas, president of the Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia, was selected by the partnership to carry out the task for Canada. He held consultations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, and spoke with officials from 16 government agencies and departments.

The report is intended to help develop Canada’s fourth open government plan under the partnership umbrella.

“There is no question that the landscape for open government in Canada has improved dramatically since the last election,” Karanicolas said.

“However, now that the low-hanging fruit has been plucked, Canada is at a crossroads. There is potential for Canada to establish itself as a global open government leader, but this will require bold and ambitious proposals, rather than more incremental steps forward.”

Canada made 22 commitments in its third action plan, from increasing digital access to museum collections and scientific data to enhancing openness about government spending.

Progress in some areas has been impressive, such as efforts to make information about Canada’s grants and contributions funding more transparent, Karanicolas says, “However, consultation with civil society across the country uncovered a widespread feeling that the government could be doing more.”

Although Canada’s latest set of promises mentioned improvements to the Access to Information Act, “that appears to have been a false dawn” as substantial reforms were not forthcoming, the report says.

The Trudeau government introduced legislation last June that would give the information commissioner new authority to order the release of files, as well as entrench the practice of routinely releasing records such as briefing notes and expense reports.

But the commissioner’s office and civil society groups have panned the proposals as too timid, or even a step backwards.