The British Columbia legislative committee that reviewed the province's freedom of information and privacy protection law has released a report recommending 35 changes.
Eleven of those recommendations repeat ones suggested, but not adopted, six years ago when the legislation was last reviewed.
“To improve access, the Special Committee is reiterating the call for public bodies to adopt the practice of routine proactive disclosure of electronic records, made by the two previous statutory review committees,” the report said.
Adopting those recommendations to automatically release many records would help “promote a culture of openness” and reduce the need for people to make formal requests for information, it said. “This would also reduce the cost to the public purse.”
The committee also suggested creating a new position for a government chief privacy officer and requiring privacy impact assessments to be made at several phases during the development of any electronic record project, including at the start.
During the committee hearings, then acting information and privacy commissioner Paul Fraser criticized the government for working on a major database project, the integrated case management system, for two years without conducting the legally required privacy impact assessment.
Out of the 28 recommendations a similar committee chaired by Blair Lekstrom made in 2004, half had been adopted by Feb. 2009.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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SharingIsGood
1 year ago
More of the same
Thanks, Andrew MacLeod,
It all seems a bit much, doesn't it?
No matter which direction we turn, we have the provincial BC Liberals and federal Conservatives doing bad things or not doing things when they should. They are not living up to ethical standards that even a child understands. Then. they attempt to avoid their further responsibilities when they cover things up or lie about what they have or have not done. Telling half-truths and not reporting all of the actions (or inactions) of government are just another way of lying.
Andrew, I think that no one else is commenting on your article because we have, time and again, read words like these about this "most open and accountable government". That does not make your reporting any less important. Your reporting is vital to our being able to maintain a vestige of democracy through the actions/inactions of what has become of our main stream Fourth Estate.
Again, thank you, Andrew; and, thanks to David Beers for maintainting the vigil.
SIG
RossK
1 year ago
Boy, Oh Boy....
I'd sure as heckfire like somebody to the government records containing the (presumably) signed authorizations that resulted in.....
This.
.