"I write to request that the Ministry draft amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) to ensure that FIPPA covers subsidiary corporations of local public bodies.... It is vital for open and accountable government that, whatever the form of the entity, if it is carrying on public business, it should be subject to FIPPA."

Five days later in the legislature, NDP MLA Doug Routley tried to amend the FOI law to fix the problem, saying: "I would like to move to add the words 'or its subsidiaries' after the words 'under the control of the public body,' and I have an amendment here that would do that."

MacDiarmid replied that, although appreciative of "the spirit of the amendment," she opposed it, because it would not accomplish its goal. "What we would need to do is look at the entire act. Just putting this into this section would not actually have any meaning, because there are other areas of the act that would have to be amended before the subsidiaries could be included." His amendment was rejected.

Walled fortresses

The outcome is that public bodies today can still "veil" their records in the vaults of these fortresses, while the secrecy creates potential breeding grounds for waste, corruption and risks to public health and safety.

FOI-exempt companies of B.C. Crown corporations were related to two major scandals of the 1990s: "Hydrogate," by which BC Hydro formed a subsidiary, IPC International Power Corp., to invest in a Pakistani power project, and BC Ferries' $500 million fast ferries loss through its subsidiary Catamaran Ferries International.

Today, BC Hydro claims that two of its companies, Powertech and Powerex, are FOI-exempt. After BC Ferries itself was privatized in 2003, its FOI coverage was dropped (but after years of hard campaigning the coverage was restored).

I stress that I am not arguing against the decision to privatize some public services -- a choice that might work well or not -- only the harmful loss of public transparency that too often accompanies that decision, but should not. Such privatization has occurred in other countries also, but the global FOI standard is to include them under the laws.

Past and possible future litigation on this dispute has already been wasteful enough. To date, SFU has spent $157,144 in legal fees fighting the case (while UBC refuses to reveal its legal costs) -- money that would be far better spent aiding students. The UBC lawyers report to the university's vice president of legal affairs, Stephen Owen, who ironically was a vocal FOI advocate while a federal MP. Meanwhile, UBC president Stephen Toope and the Board of Governors could end the obstructionism today if they chose to, but they have not spoken publicly about it.

No accountability without transparency

The main argument a public body might raise is that its companies must be exempt from FOI laws to shield them from business competitors' scrutiny. Yet this claim is indefensible because the FOIPP Act already contains ample protections (Sections 17 and 21, which are over-applied in practice) to withhold records that could bring competitive harm. If this public body claim was accepted, then no federal or B.C. Crown corporation would be covered by any FOI law, and yet they all are. Indeed, even Stephen Harper, the most secretive prime minister in memory, amended the federal Access to Information Act to cover all Crown corporations and their subsidiaries.

The B.C. government is well aware of the FOI quango problem. Last year, the all-party legislative review of the act urged that the law be amended to "expand the definition of 'public body' in Schedule 1 to include any corporation that is created or owned by a public body, including an educational body." Nothing happened.

In an interview last December, MacDiarmid said: "It seems reasonable to me that they would be covered. So we're certainly looking at it, but we need to do a consultation, because we have to watch for unintended consequences." Commissioner Denham reiterated the needed law reform on Vaughn Palmer's cable TV show The Voice of B.C. this month.

One of the main goals of the passage of the FOIPP Act was to render government more accountable, and there can be no real accountability without transparency. The quango exclusion is also contrary to the basic purpose of the law's Section 25, the Public Interest Override. Premier Christy Clark based her leadership campaign on open government and transparency. Now is her chance to demonstrate it.

[Tags: Politics, Rights & Justice.]