Bill C-278 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Access to Information Act (response time)

This bill was last introduced in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session, which ended in March 2011.

This bill was previously introduced in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session.

Sponsor

Larry Bagnell  Liberal

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Feb. 2, 2009
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment amends the Access to Information Act to provide that, if a request for access to a record under that Act is still outstanding one hundred days after the request is received, the head of the government institution to which the request was made shall send a report to the person who made the request and to the Information Commissioner, setting out a full explanation of the delay and the projected completion date. The information provided shall be included in the Information Commissioner’s annual report to Parliament.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Access to Information ActRoutine Proceedings

February 2nd, 2009 / 3:05 p.m.


See context

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-278, An Act to amend the Access to Information Act (response time).

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to introduce my private member's bill that calls for greater transparency from the government in the area of access to information. It will help improve the speed of answers to access to information requests.

Many members know, from reading news reports of the annual report of the Information Commissioner of Canada, that there is a need for amendments to the Access to Information Act. My bill would have the government explain why an access to information request was not completed within 100 days, and set a projected completion date for the information to be released. This bill will bring greater transparency and clarity to access to information.

If it takes over 100 days to reply, it really makes a joke of the system. If a request is not completed within 100 days, the government will have to report to the person on the reasons why. It will also have to report to the Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioner's annual report will show which agencies have these outstanding reports.

Hopefully, this will make the system more effective and I hope all parliamentarians will support such an improvement.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)