Watchdog concerned as privacy bill passes Alberta legislature to end fall sitting
CBC
Alberta's information and privacy commissioner says she is worried — but not surprised — the province voted this week to pass legislation she says will reduce public access to government information.
"I am concerned," commissioner Diane McLeod said in an interview.
"All of those things I think are going to impact the right of access significantly for Albertans."
The government wrapped up the fall sitting of the legislature late Wednesday night, passing a bill from Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally on new rules surrounding freedom of information.
The bill creates new exemptions for what documents the public has a right to access.
They will not be allowed to see any document created by or for the premier, government ministers or the provincial Treasury Board, including correspondence like emails.
When the bill was introduced last month, McLeod wrote to Nally outlining multiple concerns, but no amendments were made to Nally's bill before it passed third and final reading.
"There was nothing in [the letter that] would have come as any surprise to them," said McLeod, whose office has been investigating the government's handling of freedom of information requests since the summer of 2023.
"I didn't really expect them to respond to my comments and recommendations."
In her letter to Nally, McLeod wrote that the proposed changes give the government more power to avoid disclosing information to the public by including in the exempted correspondence "virtually all communication between political staff and [members of cabinet]."
Nally has repeatedly rejected the criticism, saying that such electronic communication should be confidential as freedom of information "is about access to government documents, not about political conversation."
Nally's bill also extends the time frame for when public bodies must respond to freedom of information applications to 30 business days from 30 days.
It also permits public bodies to dismiss information applications if they are deemed not to be "reasonable." What is and is not reasonable is not defined in the bill.
Nally has denied the changes will make Alberta's government less transparent.
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