Vaughn Palmer: Horgan attacks public access to government information

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VICTORIA – Cabinet Minister Lisa Beare struggled Tuesday to explain the origins of the NDP government’s decision to begin charging a $ 25 fee for routine requests under the province’s access to information legislation.

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Clearly, the source was not Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy.

McEvoy is not just the province’s independent watchdog for access to information. He was literally present at the creation of BC’s landmark Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection legislation, as a senior staff member in the office of then-NDP Attorney General Colin Gabelmann in the early 1990s.

The New Democrats consulted McEvoy ahead of this week’s proposed changes to one of the proudest accomplishments of his previous time in office.

And McEvoy approved some of the amendments tabled Monday. But he recommended not paying the $ 25 application fee.

“I’m concerned about that because every time a fee structure is put in place, it acts as a barrier and a deterrent to people making access requests,” McEvoy told CHEK News reporter Rob Shaw.

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“We have been proud in British Columbia for 25 years to have a fee-free system. … but the fees do not increase accountability or transparency. “

The new Democrats not only ignored the advice of the watchdog, they discouraged it.

An amendment enables the application fee. Another prevents Commissioner McEvoy from using the powers of his office to waive application fees in the public interest.

“If you are going to incorporate them, you want to be able to waive them if it is in the public interest or if it is financially detrimental to the application,” says McEvoy.

This is not how John Horgan’s NDP government does things: “They have designed the law in such a way that no exceptions are made once those tariffs are implemented.”

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When asked about the decision to ignore McEvoy’s advice on rates, Beare, who holds the title of minister of citizen services, said the move was intended to bring BC “in line with other jurisdictions.”

Mainly, it aligns the province with that source of inspiration for the BC NDP: Alberta’s conservative government, which 25 years ago pioneered its own $ 25 application fee.

Who did the new Democrats consult before joining the Alberta Conservatives?

Beare cited consultations earlier this year with various groups and the public.

“Participants included British Columbia public sector agencies, provincial government ministries, indigenous groups, the British Columbia technology sector and the public,” said the insider released by his office.

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“Comments were also received through round tables and presentations in the general public sector, such as post-secondary institutions, local governments and health authorities.

“A government survey asked people if their thoughts on accessing government information and protecting privacy have changed with the shift from the pandemic to more government services being delivered online.

“The questions focused on how people access information, the residence of the data, the freedom of information process, the reporting of privacy violations, and infractions and penalties. More than 1,700 people responded. “

It would not be surprising if some of those consulted supported the $ 25 fee.

Health regions and universities must hate access to information as much as government ministries, judging by their late filings and liberal use of black ink to erase information from the documents they publish.

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Unfortunately for the minister’s credibility, the report on those inquiries, released Monday, contains no evidence that the government ever raised the possibility of a $ 25 application fee, regardless of the assured endorsement for one.

Rather, I suspect that the trail leads us to something Prime Minister John Horgan said late last year, when he appointed Beare to the post-election cabinet.

His marching orders removed an earlier instruction to the citizen services minister to “improve access to information rules to provide greater public accountability” and “improve response and processing times for freedom of information requests.”

When asked to explain the change, Horgan insisted that the government was still working to improve access to information.

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He also complained that the Liberals in the BC Opposition were abusing access to information and bombarding the government with too many requests.

“In my opinion, those requests are not designed to improve understanding of program delivery,” Horgan told Tyee reporter Andrew MacLeod in December. “They are designed for political gain.”

He should know: the New Democrats in the Opposition used such requests to shame the BC Liberals over and over again.

“I was a beneficiary of that as a member of the Opposition,” Horgan admitted in a shameless display of that-was-then-this-is-now hypocrisy. “But I would like to go back to first principles when it comes to freedom of information.”

Not surprisingly, when the fee was announced this week, anonymous NDP sources claimed that the Liberals were submitting thousands of applications and that it was costing millions to process.

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Liberals used to make similar, unproven claims about NDP submissions.

And when the Liberal government complained about the administrative cost of freedom of information, the new opposition Democrats used to say, “Get the information out there immediately and it won’t cost you anything.”

In addition to current suspicions, the new Democrats made what they claimed was a technical change to remove “the prime minister’s office” from the specific list of agencies covered by the law.

In short, you don’t need a breadcrumb trail to follow this information access assault to the source.

Who decided to take the “free” from “freedom of information” in BC?

Premier John Horgan, of course.

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