B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner has confirmed what any journalist who has ever filed a freedom of information request in B.C. would aver: systemic problems in providing timely access to public information worsened under the B.C. Liberal government.
The problem has gone on for a decade, unaddressed, the commissioner points out.
"My office has actively examined this issue over the past ten years,” commissioner Drew McArthur said in a press release accompanying a new report.
“I am disappointed to see consistently poor compliance rates and I am concerned at the increasing length of time it takes to process access requests.”
In an audit, the commissioner examined 194 random requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) between April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2017, and found that the government failed to meet legislated response times 20% of the time.
It also found that the average delay has worsened, increasing from an average 47-day delay in 2014 to 62 days. Under the FIPPA, the government is obliged to respond to an FOI request within 30 business days.
Moreover, requests for time extensions (request that the person filing the request has no say over) has “increased significantly”
“Overall I am frustrated to see that government routinely operates in contravention of BC law, especially considering the 75% increase in time extension requests to my office over the past two years,” McArthur states in his report.
“Time extensions under FIPPA are intended to be the exception rather than the norm, as each extension delays providing results to the applicant. Ministers need to prioritize responses to access to information requests.”
While the contraventions of the FIPPA act did decline between 2008 and 2012, they have spiked since 2013.
A recent ruling by the commissioner’s office on Business in Vancouver’s behalf underscores the problem with getting timely responses to FOI requests.
In November 2015, BIV filed an FOI request asking for the bid prices on the main civil works contract for the Site C dam. The response was met with delays and extensions and, finally, with a denial to release the information.
BIV filed an appeal with the commissioner’s office, which itself required extensions in its inquiry. In July, 19 months after the original FOI request was made, the information on bid prices were finally released to BIV .
The problem for the commissioner’s office is that it has no authority to enforce penalties against the government for breaching its own legislation.
