The Alberta government recently introduced new changes to its access-to-information system, which has quietly given public bodies more power to outright reject requests they say would “unreasonably interfere with operations.”The new Access to Information Act (ATIA) came into effect on June 11, replacing the previous Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act, and while some have said these new changes will bring about more governmental transparency with the public, others believe the opposite could be the case.Under the previous system, a ministry or agency that wanted to disregard an information request had to first seek authorization from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) and provide evidence that the request was frivolous, abusive, or excessively repetitive. That safeguard has now been changed.The new ATIA allows public bodies to unilaterally disregard requests deemed “overly broad, abusive, incomprehensible, or unreasonably disruptive” to their operations without first obtaining the commissioner’s approval.At the time of the announcement, Dale Nally, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, defended the overhaul, saying the law will “modernize” information access and promote proactive disclosure.“Albertans have a right to know, and we expect that the number of records available through Transparency Alberta will grow with the consistent application of the proactive disclosure policy,” Nally said in a statement..Civil society groups claim Access to Information Act needs reform.The government insists that criteria are in place to prevent misuse.Julia Pickering, assistant director of communications for Service Alberta, said decisions take into account factors such as staff time, organizational capacity, and the impact on normal operations.“Public bodies are not required to provide access to a record if doing so would unreasonably disrupt their operations,” Pickering said in a statement to the Western Standard.“Factors considered include the size of the public body, the time and staff needed, and the impact on regular duties.”Tara Perverseff, senior information and privacy commissioner of OIPC, stressed that while public bodies can now disregard requests on their own, applicants will still be able to appeal decisions.“The ability to disregard a request may have changed, but public bodies still have to advise the applicant of the reasons and that they have the ability to come to us for review,” she said.“We have a new expedited inquiry process to determine whether or not a public body properly disregarded the request.”This, however, begs the question: what constitutes “unreasonable interference with operations?”Perverseff noted that past rulings suggest it applies only to specific, extraordinary cases — such as ones involving tens of thousands of pages of documents and records that would force a department to abandon its core duties..CAJ warns barring Western Standard journalists undermines democracy .This raises the possibility that while it may be necessary to curb abusive and overly complex requests, it could possibly mean that applicants may now be hesitant to submit legitimate requests, fearing dismissal or a backlog of appeals, with public bodies being tempted to reject more politically sensitive requests.Tom Korski, managing editor of Blacklock’s Reporter, said the new provincial guidelines appear to be similar to ones implemented by the federal government several years ago.He told the Western Standard that every province has its own distinct access-to-information act, with no two being the exact same.“It’s pretty subjective,” Korski said.“I’ve lost track of how many dozens of appeals we’ve had. It’s just a game to drive mice crazy. The feds basically came up with ‘if this is too much work, we don’t feel like doing it.’“You file an appeal and then it’s donkey baseball, it’s Joker’s wild.”Applicants still must be informed by public bodies of a decision within 30 days of filing a complaint before they can appeal to the OIPC.However, there still remains the possibility that Albertans may find themselves shut out of information they once had a stronger ability to access and obtain.For now, even the OIPC says it is unclear whether complaints will rise under the new guidelines.“We just don’t know,” Perverseff said.“We’ll have to wait and see if any come in now that the timeline has started moving forward and we’re at the end of August.”
