Mr. Chair, for a minute I thought I was in a study session instead of a serious legislative committee, but I'm going to show you why you have to take things seriously.
Since I came to testify nearly six months ago, several detrimental changes to the right to information have occurred.
One is the refusal to call a public inquiry, given the lack of substantive public information on foreign influence on Canadian affairs in elections. Another roadblock is the government's accelerated use of artificial intelligence as part of its largest switch to data-driven decision-making operations, which the minister was hinting at. There is also mounting evidence of secrecy in government contract outsourcing. That comes with the comptroller general cautioning officials not to say or reveal much. New entities like the Canada growth fund are being set up largely outside the access to information regime. Public inquiries have made releases showing that dysfunctional and secretive cultures of the RCMP and National Defence are being allowed to flourish.
In addition, the new federal employee hybrid workplace scheme makes processing access requests more difficult and less of an essential service.
Finally, before the committee, it's very late and she didn't really get into the Treasury Board review, with no recommendations and no hope for any recommendations except some vague action plan. She only confirms that the government wants to impede and delay meaningful access reform. The truth is that Treasury Board has done incredible harm over four decades, making full disclosures impossible.
This committee must sanction Treasury Board for its inept, self-serving review and recommend that Parliament remove it from having a central role in access to government records. In its place, the committee should recommend that an arm's-length freedom of information agency be set up under a revised law to handle and promote public information disclosures. What is first required is that the right to information squarely and clearly should be seen as a guaranteed constitutional right falling under the freedom of information section of the charter.
A transformative right to know has to be immediate with full disclosure of health, safety, environmental and consumer data, with the same disclosures for decision-making records and financial transactions and accounts. That requires quick access without fees. Should officials not honour their obligations for documenting, servicing and disclosure but try all kinds of creative avoidance, they must be subject to stiff penalties.
The inclusion of broad coverage of agencies receiving or using public funds can no longer be ignored. What also has to come to an end is the broad array of exemptions and exclusions to access. Authorities have created myths about cabinet and bureaucratic operations and records being sacrosanct. This must change as places like New Zealand have shown it can.
The last time around in Bill C-58, what was created and what needs to be undone was a retreat from full disclosure through a two-tier system. It's a system in which sanitized summary data on permanent exclusions of ministers and the Prime Minister's Office was falsely sold as a so-called advance. Ottawa needs to drastically change from being a place of spin communications, closed-door meetings and gagging employees.
Canadians need a dramatic new way to access data and be able to participate in and know about Canadian government affairs.
This committee and its 28 or so recommendations can help lead the way. Let's hope so. The minister isn't going to do it for you.
Thank you.