Ottawa, ON – Stephanie Kusie, Conservative Shadow Minister for Treasury Board and the King’s Privy Council, released the following statement following the conclusion of the public consultation phase of the review of the Access to Information Act (ATIA):
“Today, I wrote to the President of the Treasury Board, Shafqat Ali, officially calling on him to withdraw legislative proposals published by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which seek to dramatically alter both the scope of information Canadians are entitled to under the Act and the timelines for accessing it.
“As noted by the Information Commissioner of Canada, the proposals published by the President, ‘avoid the most pressing issue facing the system today: the unacceptable delays experienced by requesters.’ Instead of taking action to address the real issue facing Canada’s Access to Information (ATI) system, the Liberal government has proposed to limit information available to Canadians by changing the definition of ‘records’ and removing emails and text messages from accessible documents.
“Since March, I have followed this issue closely and tabled petition E-7284, which called upon the President of the Treasury Board to withdraw these bad faith proposals and address the real issues facing our ATI system, in the House of Commons. The petition garnered support and signatures from over 1,100 concerned Canadians. .
“As was made clear last week during Question Period, the Liberal President of the Treasury Board is deeply unqualified and unable to answer simple questions surrounding his portfolio – or even provide a response at all. Then again today in Question Period he still could not provide an answer.
“As the government begins to compile the results of the public consultation phase and prepares to potentially table legislation to amend the Act, Conservatives reiterate our call that the government withdraw any proposals which limit the information Canadians are allowed to request and which hinder the already legislated timelines.”