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The Current is a meeting place of perspectives with a fresh take on issues that affect Canadians today.
04/02/10: Pt 3 – Accountability Act
Stephen Harper rode into office promising open, transparent and above all accountable government. Four years later, we’re asking whether he’s delivered it.
OTTAWA – MPs were given a new blueprint to renovate the country’s antiquated access-to-information law on the eve of a scathing report from the federal information watchdog describing a system in sorry disrepair.
A New Democrat MP introduced a private member’s bill Wednesday that would adopt measures Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised more than three years ago to adopt, but has yet to act on.
The bill is based on a comprehensive package drafted in 2005 by then-information commissioner John Reid
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– reforms that would make more files accessible to the public, expand the commissioner’s oversight powers and introduce measures to help ensure federal agencies comply with the act.
NDP MP Pat Martin said Wednesday there is more of a need than ever to scrutinize government activities given the billions of dollars in federal stimulus spending on the books.
“This whole thing is based on the premise that people have a right to know what their government is doing.”
The Conservatives took office in early 2006 partly on the strength of promises of new accountability, including reforms to Canada‘s outdated Access to Information regime advocated by Reid.
However, the Harper government implemented only a handful, including the law’s expansion to some additional agencies such as Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail. The issue of access reform was shunted to a Commons committee for additional study.
“Nobody’s going to fall for any of these stunts anymore,” Martin said. “Those of us that have been around the block a few times on this issue will not accept anything other than a comprehensive reform bill.”
Harder than ever to get information from the federal government Last Updated: 26th January 2009, 4:26am As to highlight tomorrow’s budget in Canada, President Barack Obama has coincidentally drawn attention to Canada’s penchant for secrecy. By making “openness” and “transparency” a cornerstone of his presidency, he’s drawn attention to Canada’s lack of same. Not since the advent of the Access to Information Act (ATIA) in 1983, has it been so difficult to get timely information from the Canadian government. …
A challenge for Harper is to follow Obama’s lead for more open government.
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Canada’s cult of secrecy
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In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Information Commissioner Robert Marleau praised Obama’s declaration of more openness on his first day in office. “I am thrilled to see that Mr. Obama is taking such a forceful position in the context of transparency,” Marleau said. “I’m jealous, yes. Given that the president will meet Mr. Harper in the near future, I hope that they will talk about it and that the president of the United States can be an example for our own political leader.” While Obama said “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is known in Ottawa to keep a tight rein on what his ministers and members say in public. Marleau told the Globe Canada is moving in the opposite direction of Obama as far as transparency. “The fog is thickening,” Marleau said. “Things are clearly going backwards in the amount of information that is being released, and there is a clear increase in the use of time extensions and exemptions.”
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Canadian PM urged to loosen info secrecy
OTTAWA, Jan. 22 (UPI) — Canada‘s federal information commissioner is urging the prime minister to allow more transparency as ordered by new U.S. President Barack Obama.
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