Annual Report - FY 2001/2002

Ottawa, Ontario

[2002-6-6]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Canada’s Information Commissioner, the Honourable John M. Reid, P.C., today made public his Annual Report to Parliament for the fiscal year 2001-2002.

The report emphasizes the fragility of the public’s "right to know" and warns that this right continues to be under siege by the government. For example, the report describes how the government quietly and firmly shut the door on 19 years of public access to the records showing how ministers and their staff spend public money. Even more troubling to Commissioner Reid is how the government has taken advantage of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, to give itself the power to undermine the Commissioner's independent investigations. As well, the report points out, the government continues to erode the right of access by creating new institutions to carry out public functions and deliberately making these institutions not subject to the Access to Information Act. A final indication of how fragile the right of access can be is found in two "horror stories" of disdainful behaviour towards access requesters by certain senior government officials.

This year’s report renews last year’s warning to the public to be wary of the government’s intention to "reform" the Act by way of an insider review process. The Task Force has not yet made its recommendations, but the Commissioner warns that the harsh attacks made this year by the government against the right to know heighten the concern that, no matter how well the Task Force does its work, no serious effort will be made by this government to modernize and strengthen the Act.

There was positive news to report this year. More access requests than ever were received by government, yet a lower percentage of them became complaints. Once again, the vast majority of complaints to the Commissioner were resolved without recourse to the Federal Court. Also on the positive side, the intransigent, systemic problem of delay in answering access requests shows signs, finally, of improvement. Over the last year, the percentage of complaints completed by the Commissioner concerning delays dropped from 43.1 percent to 28.2 percent.

"Overall", said Reid, "I give the government a "C" grade: It has shown some improvement but much more needs to be done to nurture the right of access."

The Commissioner's report also examines his own performance at the halfway point of his term. He expresses regret and concern that, despite introducing all reasonable productivity improvements, it is taking too long to complete investigations. The Commissioner makes a plea for additional resources to ensure that Canadians get timely service.

On the positive side, the Commissioner expresses satisfaction with his office's success in resolving over 99 percent of complaints without recourse to the courts and in encouraging government-wide improvement in the time taken to answer access requests.

The report is available upon request from the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada at (613) 995-2410 or 1-800-267-0441 and on the Internet at www.infocom.gc.ca.