Access delayed

Canada’s information commissioner says Canada is trailing countries like the United States and the United Kingdom in providing information to citizens.

  Canada's information commissioner speaks at a conference.

"We have a long way to go, and other countries are surpassing us in their performance," says Suzanne Legault.

The commissioner, who took office three months ago, says her top priority is to re-establish Canada as a world leader in access to information and government accountability.

Canada was the eighth country in the world to introduce access to information legislation. Today, more than 80 countries have equivalent laws.  Canada’s Access to Information Act, which came into effect 27 years ago under Pierre Trudeau’s government, preserves the rights of Canadians to access government information. If information isn't readily available from a government department, the law allows people to submit an access to information request in writing.

Departments are required to respond within 30 days or explain why they need more time to provide the information.

Legault, who handles complaints and helps people who believe their access rights have been violated, says this system is too slow. She wants government to proactively post material online so fewer Canadians have to submit formal requests.

Problems with the system

Canada’s system is plagued by complaints of delayed responses to requests and withheld information. Statistics from 2002 to 2009 show a decline in the government’s timeliness, as well as a reduction in the amount of information released.

Legault says that last year only 57 per cent of requests were answered within the required 30 days, compared with 69 per cent answered on time in 2002.

David McKie, a reporter with CBC Radio in Ottawa who routinely uses the Access to Information Act, says slow response times can mean the public never finds out about some government actions.

He says the federal response to the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods Listeria outbreak is still largely unknown because the relevant records haven't been released.

"We would love to tell you how the government responded to what became the worst food crisis in Canadian history, where 22 people died — but we can’t. We can’t because they’re withholding information."

Senator Francis Fox was responsible for enacting Canada’s access to information legislation when he was a cabinet minister.

The culture in Ottawa is that he who holds the information owns it, and we’ve got to get away from that culture to one of greater dissemination. — Senator Francis Fox

Fox says he believes Canada could learn a lot from the actions of the United States government.

"I would like to see the prime minister of the day issue a statement along the lines of what President Obama did, to remind the whole of the federal bureaucracy that democracy requires accountability and that accountability in turn requires transparency."

Immediately after taking office in 2008, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order encouraging government agencies to disclose information online — even before it's requested.

Vanessa Brinkmann, attorney-advisor at the United States Department of Justice, who spoke this week at a panel discussion about access to information in Ottawa, says the order is a significant step.

"It makes the entire process so efficient. We satisfy public demand for information before they even have to ask for it. All in all, this is a new age for transparency in the U.S."

She adds that the executive order also compels government departments to release information they might otherwise try to withhold.

"The president went further, to say that it’s not enough that releasing records might cause embarrassment, reveal errors or failures, or even that there are speculative fears associated with release. None of this is sufficient to justify withholding information."

Pulling back the curtain

Fox says he would also like to see financial incentives offered to deputy ministers who ensure that their departments proactively disclose information to the public.

"The present (Canadian) government seems to be very reluctant to go from talking about accountability to actually going the last mile and doing it."

Only 57 per cent of access to information requests in 2009 were granted within the 30-day limit.

Fox says that the Conservative government has contributed to delays in the release of information.

"The overall attitude has been 'Why do you want to have this information?' as opposed to 'You’re entitled to this information so we should release it and make it available.'"

David Eaves, a public policy expert who also took part in the panel discussion, says governments that don’t use the Internet to share information risk alienating the younger generation.

"The notion of the digital has changed everything," he says.

"Thirty milliseconds is the average length of a Google search. That is to be compared against the average length of (an access to information request), which is four months. There’s an entire generation of young people who are growing up who see (the government) as functionally irrelevant."

Legault says she thinks her own office has also become part of the problem.

"This office needs to become much more efficient at handling complaints.  We’ve re-staffed fully, but we need to build up that expertise again so that we become recognized as experts in the field of access to information and the protection of requesters' rights."

Legault says she hopes that in time Canada will be able to establish itself as a world leader in government transparency and access to information rights.

"We pay the government to provide us with programs and policies," she says. "We need to be able to hold them accountable for how our money is being spent by our public institutions. Having the right to access information allows us to hold the government accountable."

Test your knowledge on access to information

Interview with Canada's information commissioner