First we find out that the Conservatives' long-promised access-to-information reform is not on Vic Toews's desk, and now it seems pretty clear that Senate Leader Marjory LeBreton doesn't have it, either.
On Tuesday, Treasury Board president Vic Toews, the minister responsible for access to information, said he can't submit the promised reform bill because it's not on his desk. In the Senate yesterday, Liberal Senator Francis Fox, who as a former minister introduced the existing access bill back in 1983, asked if the Conservatives can put the reform bill on Mr. Toews's desk.
Senate Government Leader Marjory LeBreton delivered a lengthy reply about how the number of access requests has gone up, there's a paper burden, and that the government takes the report of access commissioner Robert Marleau "very seriously." She noted the Conservatives did expand coverage of the existing law to crown corporations -the one pledge of their eight-point campaign promise on access-to-information they have put into effect so far.
No mention of the access-reform bill they promised in their 2005-06 election campaign on accountability, however. That platform complained that "the Liberal government has consistently rejected attempts to provide Canadians with better access to government information."