Suzanne Legault warns of growing federal government secrecy

Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault confirming what we all know: that ATIP is broken and many departments are not in compliance with the principles and requirements of ATIP.

Not surprised to see CIC on the list of one of the worst departments in this regard as my experience indicates (still have an outstanding request for over a year for information that should have been released a long-time ago).

But Legault omits to mention the Government’s complicity for a culture of secrecy and lack of openness, and how this affects the public service role:

Legault blamed a lack of leadership toward transparency at the political level and within the senior ranks of some departments and agencies for creating an environment where the tendency is to try to keep information under lock and key.

“The main reason why the system is fragile and volatile is because for some reason, leadership in the institutions varies,” she said.

“When there is not very strong leadership at all levels of an institution in favour of timely transparency, we see institutions falter on releasing information. When we have strong leadership within the institutions, usually institutions perform well.”

Among the worst performers last year were Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the RCMP, Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence.

The federal Access to Information Act was introduced in 1985 and has remained largely unchanged since then despite frequent criticisms that the system is broken.

Legault writes in her report that real improvement to the access system will only come by modernizing the law, which she described as “a long-overdue step that is crucial to advancing the cause of transparency and accountability in Canada.

”In the House of Commons, Treasury Board President Tony Clement defended the government’s record on access to information Thursday, saying it had responded to more requests than previous governments combined.

“The total number of access to information requests that have been replied to since 1983, 50 per cent of them have been replied to by this government. We have replied to more access to information requests than the Trudeau, Mulroney, Turner, Campbell, Chrétien and Martin governments combined. That is our record on access to information and we are darn proud of it.”

Suzanne Legault warns of growing federal government secrecy | Ottawa Citizen.