Expert says Alberta government has no reasonable excuse in failing with access to information requests

One expert says the Alberta government has no reasonable excuse as to why it’s being investigated for failing to adhere to the Freedom of Information Act.

“It’s extremely concerning, as the commissioner points out ‘access delayed is access denied’ and we have a significant situation happening at this ministry where access is essentially being denied,” said Sean Holman, journalism professor, journalist and expert in Freedom of Information requests.

His comments come as the Information and Privacy Commissioner revealed Tuesday she was investigating Alberta Justice and Solicitor General for repeated and chronic delays.

“The ministry says it’s essentially because they have a backlog of requests but I think it’s important to understand where that backlog of requests come from. In Canada, the way in which our Freedom of Information laws are structured is they have significant exemptions and exclusions in them, so in other words government has the opportunity to essentially deny access to certain pieces of information if it wants to deny access to certain pieces of information.”

According to Holman, the way they do that is by employing bureaucrats to censor information before it goes out the door. If they didn’t do that these requests would take little to no time at all.

“There is no reasonable excuse for this perhaps maybe under-resourcing. I think it’s important to remember the NDP came to power in this province without promising any significant reforms to Access to Information,” he said.

Holman calls it troubling given Alberta’s laws are some of the worst in the country and hinders a persons’ ability to conduct a request.

“Hardly anyone really campaigned to bring more openness to what is an extremely secretive government, the other troubling thing is media doesn’t really use it. There was 110 requests in Alberta in the last fiscal year, compare that to B.C. where there was like 10 times more. That’s because Freedom of Information requests cost $25 to file where it’s free in B.C.”

“We have the highest Freedom of Information fee in the country and no one talks about this, why is that? We should be doing much better than we are.”

“The public has a right to public information, information that taxpayer dollars have been paid for and right now we do not have the rights we should when it comes to Access to Information in this province.”

He adds 30 days is more than reasonable to respond to these requests, citing the U.S. as an example by how fast they’re able to respond to their requests.

In a statement Tuesday night from Acting Press Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, John Archer writes;

“We take the concerns raised by the Information and Privacy Commissioner extremely seriously. While we cannot speak to specifics of the current investigation, we look forward to reviewing the Commissioner’s findings to ensure Albertans receive timely responses to requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.”

The Wildrose says it’s only had 3 of their 24 FOIP requests answered.

“We were hoping this pattern of behaviour established by the previous PC government would have stopped after the election last May. Instead it has become an entrenched practice within the ministry to consistently avoid its obligations under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. In the last month, the Wildrose Official Opposition filed 14 new appeals about Alberta Justice FOIPs with the information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office,” wrote Wildrose Shadow Justice Minister Scott Cyr.

No word yet on how long Clayton’s investigation will take and whether the provincial government will cooperate.

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