I’m going to start posting up what, sadly, will likely be examples of how Canada’s Access to Information system is grinding slowly but seemingly inexorably to a halt. This is something that all Canadians should be concerned about, not just pesky reporters. In fact, reviewing the 1,800 ATI requests filed to all federal government departments in October of last year (the most recent month for which such data is available) just 184 requests were made by media representatives. The rest came from individuals, businesses, and academics. A broken ATI system is a big problem for a democratic society.
DFAIT now charging for preparation times
One of the routine requests I make each month is for the “House Cards” prepared for the Ministers I cover. For my latest request, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade now says I’ll have to pay $838 for preparation time for three months worth of Minister Bernier’s house cards and $204 for preparation of Minister Emerson’s House Cards. DFAIT (and every other department I’ve ever requested House Cards from) has provided these House cards in the past without assessing fees for preparation. Departments can ding you for ‘search’ time if it’s going to take a while to find what you ask for, but in this case, they have found the records but say that there’s just so many, they’ve now decided to charge for it. They’re doing this, the ATIP officer handling the file says, because they’re so swamped with requests. Not sure why you, me and individual requesters are supposed to being paying because successive federal governments have failed to provide ATIP offices without the proper funds to hire staff. And note: The ATIP system is specifically NOT run on a cost-recovery basis. The Act says ATIP offices may impose fees on certain kinds of requests. If you ask me, these new ‘prep’ fees from DFAIT are nothing more than barriers and obstacles to providing information.
Still waiting on PCO and DFAIT
On December 1, 2006, I asked Transport Canada for a list of documents submitted by the Department to the Minister. Today — February 11, 2008 — I received a partial list. It’s six pages long and taken more than a year to produce this thing. But it’s still not complete because Transport Canada is still waiting for the results of consultations it was required to do with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and with the Privy Council Office. When they hear back from DFAIT and PCO, I may get the rest of this information — or not.