Canada's Freedom of Information Process is Abysmal

Not good enough

Who sends checks by mail or requests government information by mail?  In the digital age, we ought to be able to access all government documents from a database by using a password, perhaps linked to our voter number.

Under the Access to Information Act, any resident of Canada can request government-controlled information, such as a bureaucrat’s expense claims or a minister’s briefing notes, for an initial $5 fee. The application is subject to a range of exemptions.

Only about 16 per cent of the 35,000 requests filed last year resulted in the full disclosure of information, compared with 40 per cent a decade ago.

And delays in the release of records continue to grow, with just 56 per cent of requests completed in the legislated 30-day period last year, compared with almost 70 per cent at the start of the decade.

Why the delay, the cost, the very poor response to requests?  Transparency?  Accountability?  Sloppy.

I bet it's easier to have the RCMP scan our twitter and Facebook accounts than get a simple answer from FOI.  Above graph shows a graph of how Canada stacks up globally.

The Harper Conservatives first came to power in 2006 on an explicit promise to reform the Access to Information Act dramatically but have largely failed to deliver after five years in power.

Parliament did broaden the number of federal institutions covered by the Act, but growing delays and excessive censorship have plagued the system, prompting repeated public scoldings from the last three information commissioners.

At least three government departments are currently under investigation for alleged political interference in the release of documents, which has led to the resignation of a ministerial aid.

MP Paul Szabo announce planned to introduce a private member’s bill to guarantee a public right to information in our Canadian Constitution.  Maybe again in 2014.

Principle 10 of the Declaration of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development presented at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, was endorsed by Canada. It reads: “At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes.”

Source: By Stanley Tromp, Freedom of Information caucus coordinator of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), and author of Fallen Behind: Canada’s Access to Information Act in the World Context (2008). http://www3.telus.net/index100/foi

Jenkins Report Fails Conservative R&D Strategies

Incremental progress.  But we can do much, much more.

This year, Ottawa and the provinces spent $4.7-billion to more than 20,000 Canadian companies under one of the richest R&D tax expenditures in the world.

But a third or more of that cash is being wasted and paid to consultants as a result of unclear rules on what’s legitimate R&D and limited government auditing resources, according to dozens of interviews with consultants, claimants and government officials.

 That's why Harper is getting support from industry that is inflating the prices of work or expenditures.

The program is prone to abuse because the risk of getting caught is low. Tax authorities routinely accept a significant percentage of refund claims with little or no vetting in what one CRA source called the R&D industry’s “dirty secret.”

 Does the Tony Clement spending come to mind?  Puts the Liberal Adscam embarrassment into perspective.

For example, we will continue to make the key investments in science and technology necessary to sustain a modern competitive economy.  But we believe that Canada’s less than optimal results for those investments is a significant problem for our country. Harper in Davros

In line with feedback from stakeholders, we are recommending that the SR&ED program should be simplified. Specifically, for SMEs, the base for the tax credit should be labour-related costs, and the tax credit rate should be adjusted upward. The current base, which is wider than that used by many other countries, includes non-labour costs, such as materials and capital equipment, the calculation of which can be highly complex. This complexity results in excessive compliance costs for claimants and dissipates a portion of the program’s benefit in fees for third-party consultants hired to prepare claims.  Source: Jenkins Report

Put simply, the government strategy is that tax credits to corporations should result in job creation or investment into research and development.  Looks like it doesn't.  It's wasted instead on machinery and capital equipment.  I wonder if Caterpillar will take the machinery away with it when it goes south?  How much machinery is being put into the pipelines?  

Harper blames red tape for eating up the costs and showing less benefit for the free money incentive to industry.  In fact, it is the lack of front loading of clearly written documentation and planning.  His government is incompetent.  R & D should be results oriented, observable, quantifiable.  We have professionals that write proposals, yet Harper wants to keep secrets in house.  Well, the tar sands mess just shows how well that works out. 

Tories Tamper with Elections Donations in Alberta

Incremental damage

Andrew Frank, is not the only whistle blower to suffer the Tory chill by losing his job.  Chief electoral officer Lorne Gibson has filed a complaint for Alberta's former chief electoral officer,

who was canned by the government of Premier Ed Stelmach in 2009 for the shambolic way the 2008 Alberta general election was run. Someone's head had to roll and, as the man in charge of the election process, it was Gibson that got the chop.

the problems with the election were mostly the fault of Alberta's deeply flawed elections law and the people in the Conservative cabinet who actually had the power to run things.
You don't believe "deeply flawed"? Only in Alberta -- among Canadian jurisdictions, anyway -- were electoral officers appointed by a partisan agent of the governing party.

 The Wildrose has said the donations are symptomatic of a diseased political system that comes from the Conservatives being in power for 40 consecutive years. The party also said municipal leaders feel the heat to donate or be punished through funding cuts or other measures. 

Because the election was called so quickly, apparently there was not enough time to get voters' lists in order and people were either left off the lists (about 250,000 in Alberta) or had to suffer long waiting times.  I certainly did on the advanced voting poll.  I never had any problem with my name being on the list, but rather we were for some reason corralled like cattle and made to wait while the slowest people on the planet and completely inefficient pencil pushers tried to cope with make a check mark.  It was a disgrace and the local MP was appalled by what he saw.

But back to the donations.  Obviously, there was more money thrown around for Conservatives to spend on their own campaign.  Holding up the shambles mess for criticism is worthy at this time - to incrementally damage the Conservative self promotion machine and show it up for what it is- pushy, self serving, spiteful towards those who would speak the truth.  

Non Reporting of Aboriginals Water Treatment Plant Needs

It is no longer possible to ignore the rights of Canada's aboriginals, now that they are crucial to much needed land access.  Long ghetoized and ignored in poverty and government neglect, their story of inequality has become a cause célèbre in the environmental issues of Canadian water rights.

“The report released today is shocking in that it reveals the quality of drinking water in First Nation communities is even worse than anticipated,” said the National Chief.  “More than half the water systems our people are using are risky systems.  While First Nations have been calling attention to this matter for years, today’s report should spark swift and urgent action to ensure the health and safety of our people.  Other Canadians would not tolerate this situation in their communities and we must not tolerate it in First Nation communities.” Assembly of First Nations 

Results for Alberta from Statistics Canada 

Contamination of Aboriginal Water is a Human Rights issue.  They own the land.  They must have water rights and water treatment plants that ensure healthy living on that land.  To neglect this fact is a sure method to extinguish the number of peoples who can live on reserves.  The government has for years walked away from water treatment projects by saying that there are no roads to access in order to build the plants.  Whereas there are no such excuses for not continuing to drill and push huge hulking machinery into the remotest regions of the Yukon in pursuit of minerals.

As anti fracking communities are gaining traction in the US with help of the EPA, shouldn't it now be time for investment into the north with Environment Canada water standards, water treatment, clean water standards and followup with action? And shouldn't environmental lawyers be lining up in droves to support Aboriginal water claims pro bono to fight for Aboriginal ownership of water on their land? 

Read Turtle Island News for the latest points of view from communities opposing such inaction and for true reporting from an Aboriginal perspective.

Media Sources Not to Trust

Don't expect Wall Street Journal to write honestly about climate change.  It's a business magazine and its readers are looking for profits, not prophecies, well, maybe!  From Peter Gleick of Forbes.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has long been understood to be not only antagonistic to the facts of climate science, but hostile. But in a remarkable example of their unabashed bias, on Friday they published an opinion piece that not only repeats many of the flawed and misleading arguments about climate science, but purports to be of special significance because it was signed by 16 “scientists.”

For example, their op-ed has fundamental errors about recent actual temperatures, they use false/strawman arguments that climate scientists are saying climate change “will destroy civilization,” they launch ad hominem attack on particular climate scientists using out-of-context quotes, and so on.  

For the penultimate authority for science journalism:

 The National Academy of Sciences is the nation’s pre-eminent independent scientific organizations. Its members are among the most respected in the world in their fields. 

Science magazine – perhaps the nation’s most important journal on scientific issues – published the letter from the NAS members after the Journal turned it down. 

Science specific research, use Scirius or Google Scholar.

Overhauling Canada's Regulatory Framework Details Lacking

As usual there's the cart before the horse, some half cocked put it out there then we'll get to it ham fisted approach to legislation.  Everything needs to be speeded up to get that economy on track, expedited, action verbed out there.  Just get it in the headlines and let the reporters talk it up with the usual patter, some flag around the Harpo or Joe Oily looking like he's about to collapse from the burden of responsibility on his shoulders, or Peter Kent falling down sagging from his copious notes.

For workers on the front line, here's where all this profitability margins got you.  Deaths and negligence.  Safety personnel at risk in the North.

Inadequate Search and Rescue in the North.

“It’s inexcusable for our country to rely upon search and rescue [resources] located on the shores of Lake Ontario . . . when there’s so much more happening [elsewhere].” NunatsiaqOnline (subscribe and support)  

Arctic Rescuer Dies Waiting Five Hours in Sea in Canada

According to a preliminary report released by the Canadian Forces Wednesday, Gilbert and two other technicians parachuted 600 metres into waves which were three metres high with winds blowing at 50 km/h.

Dust Levels High At Burns' Lake Warnings Dismissed

The WorkSafe BC inspection report shows an officer collected 10 dust samples from the mill on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 and submitted them for lab tests.

The results released Dec. 28 found dust levels in the basement cleanup area were more than twice the acceptable level for an eight-hour exposure.

Read it on Global News: Global BC | Dust levels high weeks before explosion at B.C. mill: WorkSafe BC 

Since we now know that our local papers are Harper puppets, collect a wiki of your own independent newspapers and journalists that can write true real people points of view.  Submit the names of the reporters to writer's organizations who offer awards of merit for real news reporting and sanctions against  shills like Ibitson, et al.  (more to be added)

MP's Pensions an Outrage

Time for pension reform for MP's.  This is now a hot point that needs to be addressed in times of austerity.  If not, then the point is clear.  All optics for the power elite.  Make sure the underclass know they are an underclass by being callous and supercilious when dealing with issues of equality.  Make no bones about who dictates, and who serves, about who is deserving of wealth and who is not.

The Publicly Funded MP Pension Plan

Rick Mercer describes Parliamentary Secretary, Pierre Poilievre, as someone who has never worked at anything, but is an expert on everything. First elected in his mid-twenties, 31 year-old, Poilievre, has ALREADY qualified for HIS share of the extravagantly outrageous, MP pension plan. Poilievre can start cashing HIS pension cheques at age 55. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation tells us that taxpayers kick in $23.30 for every dollar put in by their MP. CTF says that MP pensions, guaranteed by law, grow 10.4% a year - all courtesy of taxpayers, who, each year, put more money into their MP's pension account - $248,000 - than the MP's base salary of $157,000. MP's themselves, contribute a minimal $10,990 a year. In the face of THIS, Harper, not only plans to stuff another 18 bodies into Parliament, but, he also has the gall to set about attacking the very people supporting such *generosity*? For Harper voters everywhere, just how is THIS sort *accountability* working for you, again?