Some notes from my review of the final Report of the Access to Information Review Task Force, June 2002:
…the Task Force has concluded that the Access to Information Act is still basically sound in concept, structure and balance. (1)
These legislative and administrative measures, by themselves, will not be enough to ensure the objectives of the Act are achieved. They must be supported by a strong “access” culture within government.
…providing information to Canadians must be recognized as a legitimate, and indeed, core aspect of every public servant’s day-to-day work. Access to information must be valued and recognized and become a matter of pride for the public service.
Many requesters feel that the essence of the Act is sound, but it continues to be applied inconsistently and in such a way as to contradict the principles of openness, transparency and accountability that underlie it. Delays, fees and inconsistency are major complaints. (3)
The Information Commissioner is critical of what he perceives to be a deeply entrenched culture of secrecy in government, and a lack of commitment to the principles of the Act. (3)
Access to information needs to be resourced in the same way as any program delivered by the Government of Canada. (5)
The total costs of administering the Act are in the order of $30 million annually or less than $1 per Canadian per year. (5)
Over one-half of all requests (52 per cent in 2000-2001) are made to five government institutions: Citizenship and Immigration Canada; National Archives; Health Canada; Human Resources Development Canada; and the Department of National Defence. (9)
The largest request received at this point was to the Department of Foreign Affairs for 1.2 million documents.
Since it was first enacted, the Access to Information Act has been amended three times. (13)
In 2000-01, the ratio of access to information and privacy requests at the federal level to the total Canadian population was about 0.004 or half the ratio in the U.S. (0.0079). (15)