Information and privacy commissioner says Alberta rejected of her two recommendations
In May, Information and Privacy Commissioner Diane McLeod published a report that followed a 21-month investigation into how the province was handling requests made under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).
She found that 27 government departments relied on policies that broke FOIP laws, and issued a report with multiple recommendations to make responses to requests compliant with the legislation.
On Friday, McLeod stated in a news release that Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally wrote her last month on behalf of all government public bodies indicating the province was accepting most, but not all, of her recommendations.
'I am pleased that the government has accepted most of my recommendations and either has implemented or is in the process of implementing them,' said McLeod. 'However, I was disappointed to read that the government is not accepting two of the recommendations.'
Those two recommendations centre around the province's practice of limiting the number of topics in an access to information request, and splitting requests with multiple topics into several new requests at the cost of more fees.
McLeod said she wants to know if the government is still pursuing those policies under new legislation, The Access to Information Act (ATIA), which came into force on June 11 and superseded the FOIP Act.
'I will be monitoring requests for review coming into my office concerning Government of Alberta public bodies to determine whether this activity is still occurring under ATIA,' McLeod said.
'If I find this to be the case, I will investigate under ATIA to determine whether the government public bodies are permitted to require applicants to split access requests and their rationale for the same.'
In a statement, the office of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally said his department respects McLeod's role but that his job is 'to get Albertans the information they request, quickly, lawfully, and efficiently.'
'Expecting government to process massive, multi-topic requests as a single file is a recipe for delays, backlogs, and frustration,' it reads.
'We are focused on getting results for Albertans and won't adopt policies that make the system slower.'
Nally has previously defended the new access to information rules as a necessary upgrade on dated legislation.
Critics, including McLeod, have described ATIA's exemptions around political staff and cabinet as too broad, and noted the legislation also extends response timelines from 30 calendar days to 30 business days.
In June, the involvement of McLeod's office prompted the government to publish the results of a FOIP request made 21 months earlier by Postmedia for the initial long-form responses to the province's 2023 pension survey, and share a summary of the complete survey results soon after.
Her office is also in receipt of three requests for review of the province's response to ATIA requests from Postmedia for the early results of Alberta Next consultation surveys on immigration and a provincial pension plan, as well as open-answer replies, all of which the government has chosen to withhold.
mblack@postmedia.com
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