Bid to narrow transparency law ‘a move in the wrong direction,’ info watchdog says
Caroline Maynard says the proposal could shield government records and weaken transparency, even as officials say it would speed responses to requests.
- Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard warned Saturday that a Treasury Board proposal to narrow the definition of "record" under the Access to Information Act could exclude "entire swaths of government-held records" from public scrutiny.
- The Treasury Board argues that limiting the definition to records with "ongoing business value and that are stored in official repositories" would improve efficiency by removing routine communications and transitory records from the law's reach.
- Maynard strongly disagrees, noting that records initially labeled transitory often prove to be of "clear evidentiary and public interest value," and excluding them would shift an existing management gap into the access regime.
- She pointed out that digital platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Signal support informal exchanges not captured in official repositories, warning public servants against assuming such records are necessarily transitory and exempt from retrieval.
- Maynard emphasized that any review must "expand access, modernize the framework, and reinforce independent oversight," warning that the process "must not become a justification for further secrecy" regarding the public's fundamental right to know.
25 Articles
25 Articles
The Carney government recently introduced possible changes to the access to information system.
The Toronto Star
Bid to narrow transparency law ‘a move in the wrong direction,’ info watchdog says
OTTAWA - Information commissioner Caroline Maynard says a federal proposal to narrow the scope of the Access to Information Act is a move in the wrong direction that could exclude
Winnipeg Free Press
Bid to narrow transparency law 'a move in the wrong direction,' info watchdog says
OTTAWA - Information commissioner Caroline Maynard says a federal proposal to narrow the scope of the Access to Information Act is a move in the wrong direction that could exclude
The Information Commissioner of Canada, Caroline Maynard, believes that a federal proposal to restrict the scope of the Access to Information Act is a step in the wrong direction, which could "exclude large sets of government records" from the public eye.
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