The Globe and Mail launched its most recent project last week: Delving into the maddening and bureaucratic world of freedom of information laws, Tom Cardoso and Robyn Doolittle, two reporters from The Globe’s investigative team, decided to take on Canada’s broken system.
Over the last 20 months, The Globe has conducted hundreds of interviews and analyzed thousands of government records as part of the project, called Secret Canada.
What they found was that the FOI process is a significant problem for journalists, researchers, academics, activists and citizens, all of whom use FOI requests to learn about how their governments and public bodies function. Across the country, FOI units have limited resources and staff, making statutory deadlines tough to meet. The laws themselves are outdated, and institutions often refuse to release records that judges and adjudicators have repeatedly said are public, such as government contracts.
Public servants are also regularly withholding information – even if the legislation permits its release – to avoid risk or embarrassment.
But as The Globe’s investigation proceeded, one province stood out: Alberta.
The Globe sent 253 FOI requests to every department and ministry in Canada – provincial, territorial and federal – as part of a national audit designed to measure each jurisdiction’s performance on access and transparency.
The requests looked at each ministry’s FOI tracking system, such as when requests were received and completed, and whether any information was provided. Unlike every other jurisdiction in Canada, all 22 ministries in Alberta denied The Globe’s requests, claiming “no records” existed – even though the province has a tracking system.
The government’s excuse? Provincial officials said that the information exists, but producing it would require them to “create a record,” which they argued is outside the scope of their obligations. However, the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act states that public institutions “must create a record,” provided it’s easily done and that the original exists in electronic format.
As The Globe story states, it is one of the examples of the lengths institutions will go to not provide information.
“From our legal team’s perspective … it doesn’t exist exactly in the format that you requested. So therefore, it equalled a new record, according to our legal team,” said Maureen Towle, assistant deputy minister of Data, Privacy and Innovation.
Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Diane McLeod, who oversees the office that handles FOI appeals, would not comment on the specifics of the province’s decision, but said it was certainly “very unfortunate.”
“I can’t speak to why they didn’t provide that information, but I think it is a poor representation for Alberta,” she said.
While The Globe’s project may be the impetus for change both in Alberta and elsewhere, it will require a concerted effort by multiple levels of government to improve the system.
On Friday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told The Globe that she is having a deputy minister look into what went wrong and why the province was the only one not to provide the requested information.
“We have to have open, transparent government and I do believe in the process of freedom of information,” she said. “I’m hopeful we’ll be able to solve the problem.”
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.