Canada's archaic access-to-information
regime is about to establish a toehold in the online world.
The Harper government plans a pilot
project early next year to allow ordinary citizens and others to request
internal documents under the Access to Information Act via the Internet. The
one-stop online portal would route each request to the proper department, allow
fees to be paid electronically, and permit detailed tracking of the processing
of the file.
The initiative will begin with just
three departments, but is to include most federal agencies and institutions
over the next three to four years. Canada's access-to-information legislation
was born in 1982, before the age of the Internet, and the current system
largely reflects a bygone era of paper cheques and forms, envelopes and postage
stamps.
For years, critics have pressed Harper
government to haul the creaking system into the digital world to save money and
reduce growing backlogs, pointing to Mexico and the United States as examples. Mexico
already has a government-wide freedom-of-information portal, and the United
States launched its own pilot project last week, called FOIAonline.
Canada's version will be launched early
next year, comprising Citizenship and Immigration, Shared Services Canada and
the Treasury Board Secretariat, the federal agency responsible for setting
access-to-information standards and policies across all government. Citizenship
and Immigration is the anchor department for the pilot because it already has
basic access-to-information online systems in place, such as the ability to
receive credit-card payments electronically.
The new portal will incorporate the
so-called receiver general buy button, an existing payment regime that allows
private-sector clients to pay online for federal goods and services using
credit cards and the Interac payment system. The pilot is to run until next
summer and will also allow one-stop applications under the Privacy Act, said
Treasury Board spokeswoman Theresa Knowles.
"Given their expertise and
experience with online payments, CIC (Citizenship and Immigration) has been
selected to host the software that will allow requester to submit Access to
Information and Privacy requests online and pay for them through the receiver
general's buy button, using a secure link and an appropriate credit card,"
Knowles said.
And starting in 2014, Treasury Board
plans to create a publicly searchable online database of released
access-to-information request summaries from every department and agency.
The database will replace an earlier
information registry, known as CAIRS, that the Harper government killed in
early 2008. As of this year, departments and Crown corporations have been
required to post online monthly lists of completed access-to-information
requests but there has been no central, searchable repository.
Canada's information commissioner, who
acts as an ombudsman for frustrated requesters, has pressed the Harper
government to revive a publicly searchable request database. Suzanne Legault
also wrote a joint letter last January with her fellow commissioners in the
provinces and territories calling on Treasury Board President Tony Clement to
create a central access portal, similar to Mexico's.
"Currently federal institutions
employ various methods, ranging from manual to stand-alone systems, to process
access to information requests," says the Jan. 19 letter. "The
capacity to deal efficiently with electronic records and conduct effective
searches of requests and responses is limited and impedes the ability to
publicly disseminate the information in a timely manner."
Legault says the pilot project has been
too long in coming.
"Canadians are increasingly using
the Internet to access government services and to make payments," she said
in an email to The Canadian Press last week.
"The implementation of an online
portal to facilitate and improve the process of making access-to-information
requests, as well as the dissemination of government information, is long
overdue."
Michael Dagg, an Ottawa businessman who
files about 500 requests each year for clients, welcomed the portal because it
will "impose a standardized processing procedure across multiple
departments."
"It's a step in the right
direction, and I support that," he said in an interview. "It should
simplify the process for average users."
The newly launched FOIAonline portal in
the United States, involving six agencies, is estimated to cost about US$1.3
million with annual operating costs of up to US$750,000.
But long-term savings are projected at
US$200 million over five years once every department signs up. The Treasury
Board declined to release cost estimates for the new Canadian portal. "Costs
are still being assessed but are considered reasonable for a pilot of this
nature," Knowles said. The current access-to-information system cost the
federal government $52.6 million to administer in 2010-2011.
Requesters must pay an initial
application fee of $5, and some additional charges for photocopies and search
time. The federal government says it recoups an average of only $8 for each
request, while administration costs average about $1,300 per request.
Canada, once considered a global leader
in freedom of information, has since become a laggard, with one 2011 study
ranking the country 40th among 89 nations with similar transparency laws.
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