Postponed transparency bill does little to promote access while government increases secrecy

Scott Brison tried to spin how great it would be that some mundane briefing lists, mandate letters, and ministers' expenses would become legally available as part of a take-it-or-leave-it government publication scheme.

Canada's Access to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault and Treasury Board President Scott Brison. After some weak transparency amendments, Ken Rubin writes that Mr. Brison should be replaced as Treasury Board president with a 'heavyweight champion for open government.'The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY KEN RUBIN

June 26, 2017

OTTAWA—Just as summer sets in and the parliamentary sitting ends, in come some very weak transparency amendments. What started as an election “open government” pledge in the fall of 2015 now appears in mid-2017 as Bill C-58. It took three cabinet ministers last week—Treasury Board President...

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