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Brief prepared the Québec Ombudsman on the five-year report of the Access Information Commission of Québec
Access to Information Reform: the choice of transparency
Summary
Presented to the Commission de la culture
August 2003
The Québec Ombudsman recommends that the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information be maintained, and endorses most of the recommendations made by the Access to Information Commission in its five-year report. However, she has reservations concerning some of them and proposes to make adjustments accordingly.
The Québec Ombudsman thus recommends the adoption of a clause which could be applied generally and would derive from courts’ criteria in assessing adequate motivation, in order to better control the use of discretionary powers by the person in charge of access to documents.
She endorses the recommendations made by the Access to Information Commission to establish a new system of access to information which would promote the use of the right to information, without nonetheless saying it would be relevant to give it a legal paramount status as the Commission proposes it should.
The Québec Ombudsman supports the recommendations made by the AIC aiming to reduce the time restricting access to certain documents held by public bodies.
She also supports the recommendation stating that: "the person who has filed a request for review or a request to examine a disagreement before the Commission should not be ordered to pay costs by the Court of Québec if the decision rendered by the Commission is appealed by another party". She nonetheless has reservations concerning the appropriateness of giving the AIC the power to impose damages to punish a public body guilty of faulty conduct.
The Québec Ombudsman estimates it very important the Access to Information Commission’s character of independence is upheld. The credibility of a regulatory body is established by its acts and the quality of its work, but depends on its legislative status as well.
In her "Final Notes", the Québec Ombudsman says that the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information has changed our basic policies. She states for example the care in gathering only the information needed to accomplish the mission, and the security requirements. She insists on the fact that a citizen attaches a good deal of importance to a confidential relationship with public administration, also on the need to pursue our efforts of social awareness as far as our public bodies and the population are concerned.
List of recommendations
Recommendation no. 1
The Québec Ombudsman recommends that the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information be maintained.
Recommendation no. 2
The Québec Ombudsman recommends the adoption of a clause that could be applied generally in order to control the use of discretionary powers by the person in charge of access to documents.
Recommendation no. 3
The Québec Ombudsman endorses without reservation the following recommendations formulated by the Access to Information Commission:
4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, the first paragraph of recommendation 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53.
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