Latest news with #DianeMcLeod
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Information and privacy commissioner says Alberta rejected of her two recommendations
Alberta's information and privacy commissioner says she is prepared to investigate the province's response to access to information requests, should it continue to ignore two recommendations her office made earlier this year. 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those policies under new legislation, The Access to Information Act (ATIA), which came into force on June 11 and superseded the FOIP Act.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@ Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here. You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.
Edmonton Journal
3 days ago
- Politics
- Edmonton Journal
Information and privacy commissioner says Alberta rejected of her two recommendations
Alberta's information and privacy commissioner says she is prepared to investigate the province's response to access to information requests, should it continue to ignore two recommendations her office made earlier this year. Article content 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). Article content Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content '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.' Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content '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. Article content '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.' Article content 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.'
Calgary Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Information and privacy commissioner says Alberta rejected of her two recommendations
Alberta's information and privacy commissioner says she is prepared to investigate the province's response to access to information requests, should it continue to ignore two recommendations her office made earlier this year. Article content 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). Article content Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content '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.' Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content '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. Article content '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.' Article content 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.'
CTV News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Privacy commission finds Alberta government failed to follow freedom of information laws
Alberta's privacy commissioner says the UCP has been breaking the rules around freedom of information requests. Alberta's privacy commissioner says the UCP has been breaking the rules around freedom of information requests. Alberta's privacy commissioner said the Government of Alberta has failed in multiple ways to uphold freedom of information policies. The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) was passed in 1995 and requires all public bodies, including government bodies, to make eligible information available to the public. 'Access to information rights are the foundation of an individual's ability to exercise their democratic rights by facilitating access to government information,' said Diane McLeod, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, in a report on her findings. 'Accountability is the cornerstone of the exercise of good governance,' she continued. 'Acting accountably within the context of the FOIP Act requires that government administer its responsibilities under the FOIP Act in a manner that not only respects these rights but also adheres to the spirit and intent of the Act.' The report details an investigation launched in regards to 34 requests for review filed over alleged refusals to process access requests by Alberta government public bodies. It found 27 Government of Alberta public bodies failed to uphold FOIP principals, with violations including: Refusing access requests on the basis applicants didn't provide enough information; Requiring applicants to limit the number of topics in a request to one; Limiting the time frame on the search for records; and Requiring applications to split requests containing multiple topics into multiple requests. McLeod also found the Government of Alberta had issued directives and policies that allowed staff to refuse access requests in a way not permitted under the FOIP act. The privacy commissioner made several recommendations to resolve the issues she found and said she expects them to be followed, despite provincial plans to repeal the FOIP act and replace it with the Access to Information Act. 'My findings and recommendations in this report are in large part still valid under the new legislation. This is because the relevant provisions of the new Act are the same or substantially similar to the provisions of the FOIP Act,' McLeod said. 'For that reason, I expect government public bodies to apply my findings and recommendations to their practices under both the existing and the new legislation.' In an email to The Canadian Press, a spokesperson for Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said the ministry is considering the privacy commissioner's findings and plans to work with McLeod to address concerns. The full report can be accessed here.
Toronto Star
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Investigation finds Alberta government not complying with freedom of information laws
EDMONTON - Alberta's access to information watchdog has found the provincial government to be non-compliant with its own freedom of information rules. A new report from information and privacy commissioner Diane McLeod says Alberta's government has implemented internal procedures and policies that allow government employees to wrongfully deny freedom of information requests. The report, released Friday, follows a two-year investigation sparked by complaints made about the handling of more than 30 individual information requests, many of which were made by The Globe and Mail as part of its investigation into freedom of information systems across Canada. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW McLeod's report says the information requests she reviewed were denied for not providing enough detail, which she determined is not a valid reason under provincial freedom of information laws. Under Alberta's freedom of information rules, government employees have a duty to assist an applicant. If a request doesn't have enough detail to identify records, McLeod said it's up to government staff to seek further information on what is being sought. McLeod wrote that didn't happen for the requests she reviewed for her investigation, which determined all 27 Alberta government departments to be at fault. The report said applicants were asked to narrow down the scope of their request, such as time frame and topic, or submit multiple requests so the government could meet its legislated response window of 30 days. But in many cases, files were actually closed the same day those asks were sent out, the report states. McLeod said this process, which she says violates the 'scheme' of Alberta's freedom of information law, is laid out in an internal government manual called the 'Access Request Playbook.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The manual and the government's attempts to have information requests be reduced in scope are meant to make it easier to fulfill requests, McLeod wrote, but it has made the process unfair since it's 'not the duty of the applicant to make the search easy for the public body.' 'Further, the degree of specificity identified ... as necessary to meet the 'enough detail' threshold ... is simply unattainable by an applicant and, in my view, it is unreasonable for a public body to require such specificity from an applicant when making an access request,' McLeod wrote. 'A member of the general public does not know what records are in the custody or control of a public body. They are not privy to the inner workings of government and, therefore, could not be expected to know specifics about any records held by government.' Osagie Ogunbor, a spokesperson for Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally, said in an email that the ministry is considering McLeod's findings and plans to work with her to address concerns. 'We're committed to openness and transparency, and we are proud of our record,' Ogunbor said, adding that about 97 per cent of freedom of information requests in 2023-24 were handled without complaints to the commissioner's office. McLeod's investigation also found the government unnecessarily refused requests by citing a section of the legislation that allows requests to be denied if creating requested records would unreasonably impede government operations. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Her report says that as part of her investigation, the government submitted its interpretation of the section as meaning that it only 'requires public bodies to provide access to records that already exist' rather than create new records that contain government data. McLeod is recommending the government make a number of changes to its internal policies to ensure requests aren't denied for not providing enough detail, and to ensure government bodies meet their duty to assist applicants. 'I acknowledge that managing the volume of access requests received by government public bodies can be challenging and that resources to do this work are not infinite,' she wrote. 'However, in administering the access to information provisions of the (law), there is only one choice that these public bodies have and that is to administer these provisions ... in such a manner that ensures Albertans are able to effectively exercise these rights.' A news release from the commissioner's office notes that Alberta will soon replace its freedom of information legislation with a new act after a government overhaul took place last year. It says the relevant sections at play are unchanged in the new framework. 'For that reason, I expect government public bodies to apply my findings and recommendations to their practices under both the existing and the new legislation,' McLeod said Ogunbor said that 'many' of the recommendations will be addressed through the new legislation and its regulations. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025.
