BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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BC Government wants $172,947 for list of top polluters formerly provided free of charge
In response to an FOI request from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, the BC government has quoted a fee of $172,947.50 for access to a list of BC’s top polluters that until 2001 was made public at no charge.
Randy Christensen of the non-profit Sierra Legal Defence Fund was forced to file a freedom of information request to discover which companies in B.C. are failing to comply with pollution permits — a list published twice yearly for a decade — then was threatened with the huge bill.
Christensen says Sierra Legal then checked the list of corporate donors to the provincial Liberal party campaign in 2001 — the year the annual list of polluters was abruptly axed — against that last non-compliance list. He says five of the top 10 Liberal campaign donors also appear on the list of polluters failing to comply with regulations. In fact, between them, they accounted for more than 50 violations — and some of the biggest campaign contributors had the most citations.
The stonewalling flies in the face of a passionate letter Gordon Campbell wrote to the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association in 1998.
“When government does its business behind closed doors, people will invariably believe that government has something to hide,” Campbell wrote. “Secrecy feeds distrust and dishonesty. Openness builds trust and integrity.
“The fundamental principle must be this: Government information belongs to the people, not to government. This means, among other things, that all citizens must have timely, effective and affordable access to the documents which governments make and keep. Governments should facilitate access, not obstruct it,” he wrote.
“Moreover, information rights are meaningless if disclosure timetables cannot be met because there aren’t enough staff to do the job, or if fees become an obstacle to access.”
Letter to FIPA from Gordon Campbell (pdf)
Vancouver Sun, “Campbell pulls a U-turn on ‘timely, affordable’ access to information”
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Access to Information
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In response to an FOI request from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, the BC government has quoted a fee of $172,947.50 for access to a list of BC’s top polluters that until 2001 was made public at no charge.
Randy Christensen of the non-profit Sierra Legal Defence Fund was forced to file a freedom of information request to discover which companies in B.C. are failing to comply with pollution permits — a list published twice yearly for a decade — then was threatened with the huge bill.
Christensen says Sierra Legal then checked the list of corporate donors to the provincial Liberal party campaign in 2001 — the year the annual list of polluters was abruptly axed — against that last non-compliance list. He says five of the top 10 Liberal campaign donors also appear on the list of polluters failing to comply with regulations. In fact, between them, they accounted for more than 50 violations — and some of the biggest campaign contributors had the most citations.
The stonewalling flies in the face of a passionate letter Gordon Campbell wrote to the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association in 1998.
“When government does its business behind closed doors, people will invariably believe that government has something to hide,” Campbell wrote. “Secrecy feeds distrust and dishonesty. Openness builds trust and integrity.
“The fundamental principle must be this: Government information belongs to the people, not to government. This means, among other things, that all citizens must have timely, effective and affordable access to the documents which governments make and keep. Governments should facilitate access, not obstruct it,” he wrote.
“Moreover, information rights are meaningless if disclosure timetables cannot be met because there aren’t enough staff to do the job, or if fees become an obstacle to access.”
Letter to FIPA from Gordon Campbell (pdf)
Vancouver Sun, “Campbell pulls a U-turn on ‘timely, affordable’ access to information”
Categories
Access to InformationTags