B.C. privacy commissioner mainly positive toward new FOI policies

Share

British Columbia's Information and Privacy Commissioner is praising the province's expansion of its Access-to-Information policies, but she's also concerned about the potential "unintended consequences" of a decision to post information requests as they are received.

Elizabeth Denham issued a statement on Tuesday that offered a largely positive assessment of the changes, which were announced a day earlier, but singled out the disclosure of Freedom-of-Information (FOI) requests as a potential concern.

"I wish to examine all possible implications, including any unintended consequences, of publicly disclosing a description of an applicant's request for records before they have received those records," Ms. Denham said in her statement.

Ms. Denham was not available for an interview. A spokesperson said Ms. Denham's office was not aware of the decision to disclose information requests until the new policies were released this week.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced a series of reforms to the FOI system. The province plans to automatically make public travel receipts and daily calendars for cabinet ministers and their senior officials. The new list of active FOI requests will be posted to the government's open information website. Currently, the documents released through such requests are posted several days after they are sent to the requester.

The new policies come after questions were raised about the government's management of information, including the internal practice of triple-deleting e-mails to conceal them and also relying on oral decision-making in what critics argue is an attempt to ensure there is nothing to find through access requests.

In 2011, Ms. Denham reviewed BC Ferries' practice of publicly posting responses to FOI requests, either before or at the same time as they were provided to applicants. While the commissioner found in her report the practice did not violate individual rights to access under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, she concluded it "frustrates the purposes" of the act because it may discourage individuals, particularly journalists, from making access requests.

That, in turn, could interfere with journalists' ability to hold government accountable, she said.

Over all, Ms. Denham, who as recently as last fall sharply criticized the government for impeding information requests, said the changes announced this week are positive.

"I am pleased to see the significant expansion of pro-active disclosure and improvements to access information and information-management processes," she wrote.

"These initiatives will provide an improvement for British Columbians and demonstrate a renewed respect for the spirit of our freedom of information legislation."

Doug Routley, the Opposition NDP critic for freedom of information, said if the New Democrats come to power in the 2017 provincial election, the party would keep all of the newly announced measures, but also go much further.

Mr. Routley said the government should release so much information, so regularly, that there would no longer be a need for FOI requests.

He said the benefit of releasing access requests as they are processed is that it would save those making submissions from the effort and expense, in fees, of making such requests.

Mr. Routley said an NDP government would enact legislation imposing a "duty to document," which is something Ms. Denham has previously called for to prevent the government from conducting its business orally. The party would also enact penalties for failing to observe FOI legislation, waive fees if government does not meet mandated timelines for releasing material, and release more information deemed to be in the public interest, he said.

Last fall, Ms. Denham criticized the government for impeding information requests and other practices. Former privacy commissioner David Loukidelis was recruited to advise the government on enacting Ms. Denham's recommendations. On Tuesday, Mr. Loukidelis declined to comment on this week's announcement.