In 1991, I led the team that developed B.C.’s Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation for Mike Harcourt’s NDP government. The next year, all parties in the legislature voted unanimously to pass what was then considered the most open FOI legislation in Canada. The law was lauded as “the best in North America” and led to groundbreaking journalism work.
Since then, that system has been chipped away, piece by piece.
With the recent introduction of Bill-9, the B.C. NDP government risks dealing a further blow to public access. Now, freedom of information risks becoming freedom from information.
The bill would make it easier to delay or avoid responding to requests within the legislated 30-day timeline. It would also broaden the government’s ability to ignore requests deemed to unreasonably interfere with operations. Even when access is granted, it may hinge on administrative convenience, or whether the government is willing to let the information embarrass them.
The legislation makes no distinction between general FOI requests from journalists or legislators and requests by individuals seeking their own personal records, such as child and youth foster care records or employment records, for example.
I was particularly disappointed to read that Michael Harvey, the information and privacy commissioner, endorsed Bill-9.
The legislated mandate of the information and privacy commissioner is to ensure, not abandon, our legal right to access to information within 30 days. That mandate is the same today as it was in the 1990s. As such, the commissioner should be researching and publicly advocating ways to more efficiently record, store, retrieve, and routinely release information.
I met with Harvey and he has assured me it is not his role to endorse legislation. He provides his assessment, which may or may not be correct. That said, in my view, it is magical thinking to suggest that making it easier to delay or deny requests for access to general information will speed up access.
As a retired public servant, retired lawyer, and now as an MLA, I am very familiar with the way FOI legislation is interpreted and applied. Bill-9 contains provisions that are an affront to access to information in B.C.
Holding the government to account is becoming harder as long-standing norms of accountability fracture — whether through unsanctioned actions or harmful legislative and budget decisions.
B.C. is not immune.
Under Premier David Eby’s government, legislative oversight is being seen as a nuisance to his agenda, and is being replaced by closed-Cabinet-door decision-making. Now, if Bill-9 passes, access to information will be restricted. And the way this government drafts its legislation shifts key decisions out of public view and into regulation, shielding them from scrutiny by elected officials, the media, and the public.
Meaningful accountability depends on timely and free access to information — a principle that should never change, no matter the political landscape.
When I helped draft the FOI legislation, it was the B.C. NDP who helped usher it in. Bill-9 could be the final swan song of British Columbians’ access to information.
The B.C. NDP used to care about freedom of information. Not anymore.
Posted by IHateTrains123