UPDATE: What will you do to fix Canada’s broken Access to Information system? – Response from party leaders

The federal Access to Information system is in chaos, but the parties seeking office have said nothing about what they will do to fix it. FIPA, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Newspapers Canada have sent a joint letter to to the party leaders asking them what they will do to combat an already a disastrous situation.

“In the campaign so far, politicians have used words like open government, transparency and democracy,” said Troy Lanigan of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, “but they say almost nothing about Access to Information. Without a functioning ATI system, those words ring very hollow.”

“The Information Commissioner has said the system has hit rock bottom, and that should have alarm bells going off,” said FIPA’s Vincent Gogolek. “In an election where democracy is supposedly a major issue, the leaders have said virtually nothing about this undermining of Canadians’ right to information.”

The letter asks the party leaders for a response by April 18. The three groups will post the responses on their respective websites to allow Canadians to see where the parties stand on ATI reform.

Read the joint letter
Read the joint news release
Update: Replies from parties and party leaders

Liberal Party

NDP

No response to date from Conservatives, Bloc or Greens.