The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has ruled that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) must disclose commercial and financial details of three outsourcing contracts in response to FOI requests. While issuing a series of orders today, BC’s new Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham stated, “These three orders are the latest in […]

Two environmental groups say they won a six-year battle over access to documents on sea lice, only to have the government change the rules and refuse the information for their next request. In 2004, Ecojustice and the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation requested sea lice infestation information from 2002 and 2003 but the government wouldn’t […]

Les Leyne Times Colonist June 22, 2010 When the representative for children and youth went to court last month during an argument over access to cabinet documents, Children’s Minister Mary Polak condemned the move. She expressed dismay about the “unfortunate waste of scarce resources.” The representative, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, was portrayed as wasting taxpayers’ money […]

BC FIPA presented its submission to the Alberta Legislative Standing Committee on Health review of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA). The submission consists of an extensive report prepared by journalist and researcher, Stanley L. Tromp. Based on a comparative analysis of FOI laws around the world it makes 79 recommendations […]

The unanimous report handed down by the Special Committee reviewing BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act has a lot of positive recommendations, but a few recommendations could be huge problems for FOI and privacy rights in this province. First, the good stuff. The committee has repeated a number of the recommendations of […]

FIPA has asked BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to investigate a new government order requiring Crown corporations to notify the provincial government in advance when any information is to be released in response to freedom of information requests. In the letter requesting the investigation, FIPA executive director Darrell Evans states the “requirement gives us a […]

Three BC watchdog groups are commending the BC government for increasing transparency by bringing the BC Ferries corporation back under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP Act). BC Ferries was removed from the provincial freedom of information law in 2003 by the Liberal government as part of a massive re-organization of […]

BC FIPA presented its submissions to the Special Committee to Review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) BC FIPA makes 20 recommendations for improving FIPPA which touch on multiple issues of concern. Regarding freedom of information, there are two sides to a single existential coin. In order for the Act to […]

A Special Committee of the BC Legislature that is reviewing the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act has extended the deadline for public submissions a second time. The new deadline is March 15, 2010. Information on the Special Committee and its members can be found on the Legislative Assembly website. Click here […]

BC FIPA filed a intervener factum in the Supreme Court of Canada on January 26, 2010 in case docket 33620. This is an appeal from the Court of Appeal of Alberta (Alberta Teachers’ Association v. Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2010 ABCA 26 (CanLII)) BC FIPA argues that the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) […]

Fresh from a victory in BC Supreme Court that ordered most of the $300 million IBM Workplace Support Services contract with the province released over the objections of IBM and the BC government, the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) is having a birthday party to mark the five years since the FOI request […]

The Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services sought judicial review of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC (IPC) decision (F08-07) regarding the impact of third party review as part of the ongoing dispute over disclosure of the contract between the Ministry and IBM for computer services. Today, the BC Supreme Court confirmed that the […]