Since September, Canada’s Information Commissioner Suzanne Legaut has been running a broad public consultation, seeking out suggestions for how to modernize our woefully out-of-date Access to Information Act (ATIA). Any individual or organization can participate in this critically important process. But your chance to speak up ends soon. Submissions to the consultation process close on […]

BC FIPA has responded to the questions posed by the Information Commissioner of Canada in relation to the consultation on needed reforms to the Access to Information Act (ATIA) The consultation is being undertaken in the context of the 30th anniversary of the passage of the ATIA. BC FIPA proposes multiple amendments to the ATIA […]

Universities and other public bodies can still create independent companies whose records are beyond the reach of province’s FOI law, more than a year after the former Minister of Open Government promised to deal with the problem. Last October, Information and Privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham wrote a letter to then-minister Margaret MacDiarmid to highlight a […]

According new research by FIPA, based on statistics published by the Chief Information Officer of BC, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the number of general FOI requests returned with ‘no responsive records.’ In a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, FIPA points out that overall non-responsive rates jumped from effectively […]

Responding to a recent complaint filed by FIPA regarding the BC Government’s failure to post approximately two thirds of completed FOI requests–against its own policy–BC Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham will be looking into the problem as part of her current evaluation of the province’s Open Government Initiative. In a letter to FIPA dated August 27th, […]

Only a year after announcing a number of open government initiatives to much fanfare, Christy Clark’s government is failing to meet its own standards for posting completed freedom of information requests. According to a complaint filed with the Information and Privacy Commissioner by FIPA, 67 percent of completed general FOI requests have not been posted […]

BC Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has announced that she will be launching an investigation into a widespread failure by public bodies to comply with section 25 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. That section requires heads of public bodies to release information relevant to public health and safety or […]

This weekend will mark an important milestone for information rights in Canada. Thirty years ago tomorrow, the federal Access to Information Act received Royal Assent, becoming the law of the land. But according to a press release issued today by the federal Information Commissioner, her office’s investigations “have demonstrated a number of deficiencies in the […]

After almost eight years of costly delays, the BC Government has finally released the final details of its ten-year, $300 million Workplace Services contract with IBM. FIPA received word last night that the Government would not appeal a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of British Columbia confirming their obligation to release the remaining redacted […]

FIPA has won yet again in our eight-year fight for the release of the BC Government’s Workplace Services contract with IBM. The BC Supreme Court today rejected all the BC government’s arguments opposing the release of the remaining details of the $300 million contract, which expires in 2014. The government was arguing that section 15 […]

BC Supreme court justice Bracken has set down his ruling on a judicial review application sought by the Minister of Citizens Services in the ongoing dispute regarding disclosure of the IBM contract with the Ministry for “Workplace Support”: British Columbia (Minister of Citizens’ Services) v. British Columbia (Information and Privacy Commissioner) 2012 BCSC 875 The […]

FIPA, along with the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Victoria (ELC), today announces the release of our latest submission to the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Outlining six cases where the public was not told about potentially hazardous situations, the submission requests an investigation into the disregard of Section 25 of the Freedom of […]