I'll try to go through it very briefly.
Our initial reaction was cautiously optimistic when we heard they were going to be putting requests up online because this is a good thing. The CAIRS system existed federally, and that, as I noted in my written brief, should be replaced. But as more and more details became available, it became increasingly obvious that the system was designed not so much to increase transparency as to really make things difficult for certain requesters.
We've started to see more and more information. BC Ferries does not just put the information up on the website. They also issue a news release telling other news media that, “The Vancouver Sun has just got this information. The province, the CBC, CTV, everybody else, you have it. Go to our website, and you'll have the same stuff they spent months going after.”
They also still charge fees. They charge a lot of fees. We're just beginning some battles over fees.
So if you're the requester, you're having to jump through the hoops; you're having to pay money maybe; and at the end of the day, you don't get an extra minute to look at it.
The other thing is that, as FOI requests were coming out--because, of course, we immediately filed one on how they designed their system--one of the memos we found in the document dump, which they put up online and which we got three days later in paper form, said that officials of BC Ferries were looking at how they could proactively release some of the information that they knew they were going to be asked for.They could see the question about how much money the CEO of BC Ferries was making this year coming, but for whatever reason, there were a number of memos in which the people designing the website were saying, “So are we getting the content on this or what?” And then it mysteriously petered out. We may get that later after maybe another court case.
Clearly officials thought about this. They were looking at transparency. They were looking at proactive release, but with the system that's actually in place, you don't get that. You have to file a request. Officials have to go and approach the chair to try to find out what he made this year, instead of just putting it up, putting up his expenses, things like that.