Canadian Taxpayers Federation pushes government transparency in honour of Right to Know Week

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is marking Right to Know Week with a push for government transparency.

CTF released a list of “Access to Information Act Fails,” highlighting ways in which the “federal government is failing to take transparency issues seriously,” the organization said in a news release.

Aaron Wudrick, CTF’s federal director, said despite current transparency laws in place, there is still work to be done.

“We’re just trying to highlight the fact that these laws as they stand are still pretty inadequate. There a lot of ways for governments to hide information, often in very frustrating ways,” he said.

The organization claims there are two main issues when it comes to current transparency laws–one of them is the time it takes to get information.

“A lot of governments have rules about how long governments have to release information. Usually it’s 30 or 60 days…but in reality it ends up taking years to release,” Wudrick said.

The other issue CTF has raised has to do with exemptions.

“Governments can’t just give out all the information…but a lot of these exemptions are so broad, they’re overused by governments who just don’t want to share information, and so things that are not really legitimate end up being withheld anyways, so we think some of those exemptions need to be narrowed down,” Wudrick said.

CTF said they have called on the Trudeau government to also expand the role of the information commissioner, which would give them power to issue binding orders to disclose information.

They would also like to see the Access of Information Act apply to all levels and branches of government, as well as undertaking a full legislative review of the act every five years.

“Canadians should pay attention to this…it does matter and it helps us hold our governments accountable.”