A group that advocates for government transparency has filed a complaint with B.C.'s information commissioner, pointing to a significant increase in cases where the province responds to freedom-of-information requests by claiming it couldn't find any documents. <\/p>\n
The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association suggests the trend is either a reflection of a government that avoids keeping records to skirt the law or a sign the province isn't releasing all the information it could. <\/p>\n
\"We've seen examples where you'd expect records to exist and they don't exist,\" the association's executive director, Vincent Gogolek, said in an interview Thursday. <\/p>\n
\"The phenomenon is clear. The records are not coming out.\" <\/p>\n
The group used data posted to the government's website to track cases in which the government determined it could not find any records to satisfy a freedom-of-information request. <\/p>\n
The numbers indicate such cases accounted for nearly a quarter of all requests in 2011-2012, compared with less than half a per cent in 2002-2003. <\/p>\n
For requests from the news media, that number jumps to 34 per cent, when there were no such cases in 2002-2003. <\/p>\n
Gogolek wrote the province's information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, asking her to launch an investigation. Denham's office declined to comment but confirmed she had received the letter. <\/p>\n
Last year, Premier Christy Clark promised a new era of accountability, saying her government would release more information without the need for freedom-of-information requests, distribute documents released through such requests through its website, and post a host of government data online. <\/p>\n
On Thursday Citizens' Services Minister Ben Stewart repeated the government's previous claim that much of the increase in requests that do not generate records is due to requesters using a centralized online form to send the same request to multiple ministries. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
More: A group that advocates for government transparency has filed a complaint with B.C.'s information commissioner, pointing to a significant increase in cases where the province responds to freedom-of-information requests by claiming it couldn't find any documents. Continue reading
\nFreedom-of-information requests coming up empty, B.C. group complains<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"