Thank you, Kathleen.
When it comes to the bill's amendments to section 6, as it stands now we are concerned about requests that may be deemed vexatious and turned down. We do not believe that government departments or agencies should be able to determine that a request is vexatious and deny it. We think that only the Information Commissioner should be able to make those calls.
We believe there should be some means for the Information Commissioner to say that something is vexatious, but we think there need to be very clear specifications added into the act around what exactly “vexatious” means. It's a very subjective term as it stands now.
Additionally, the bill requires requesters to specify very specific information, such as the topic, the type of record, and the time period. While this may sound simple, it can be very challenging for civil society groups. NGOs like ours, but certainly members of the public, often do not have that very specific information prior to submitting a request. These changes really make it harder and not easier for the public to access information. We feel that this provision dramatically weakens our access to information legislation and really provides governments with a mechanism to subvert the intent of the acts, if they choose to.
The last issue we're concerned about is around the authority of the Information Commissioner in section 36, which allows the Information Commissioner to order a government institution to either reconsider denying access or order that a record become available. In theory, we absolutely think this is a positive change, but we have concerns about the timeliness of this process as well as the resources required within the Information Commissioner's office to fulfill this mandate.
We would remind the committee here that the scientific community is still waiting on a report from the Information Commission on the muzzling of federal scientists. This investigation began in March 2013, and we are still waiting for the report. It has been four and a half years, and we still don't have answers. Obviously, I think, we can all agree that this is unacceptable.
In the scenario that we see with these changes, someone would submit a request to the relevant departments. It would consequentially be denied, which we assume would take a few weeks, if not the full 30 days. They would then have to take it to the Information Commissioner. We assume they would then need some time to review it. Say that they do compel the government to produce the record; it then has 30 days again to actually produce the records.
Really, then, we're looking, even under a best case scenario, at its taking potentially months to actually get the documents. Again, this is assuming that the Information Commissioner would actually be able to review the case immediately, but given that the office is under-resourced as it is, it seems likely that there could be a significant delay in the process and in their ability to review the case. We want to make the case that in order to fulfill any new mandate given to the Information Commissioner, the office will need a significant addition of resources to match any new mandate being put on them.
Additionally, again we support this new mandate for the Information Commissioner to order records, but we are concerned that the bill does not really provide any teeth for the office to do that job effectively. It's not currently clear what kind of recourse there would be if the institution just refused that order from the Information Commissioner.
It is thus our opinion that the bill needs some serious work and amendments, but we are very pleased to see that the act will be reviewed in one year and then again in five years. We think that regular renewal and revitalization of an act so vital to our democracy is imperative. As data practices and government evolve, so too should our access to information laws.
We look forward to seeing what the committee does with this bill, and the reviews.
Thank you for your time.