Access to information | Six months to submit a document

The Federal Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says it needs six months to submit a document to The Pressclaiming that to do so within the time prescribed by the Access to Information Act would interfere with its operation.

I’Social media analysis for online wildlife trafficking that The Press wishes to consult was commissioned by Ottawa from the firm DB3 Consulting inc., in July 2021, at a cost of $37,406.25.

As the document is not publicly accessible, The Press asked for a copy through the Access to Information Act federal – the request was sent on February 27, 2023.

“A 150-day extension is required beyond the prescribed 30 days to process your request,” Environment and Climate Change Canada responded on March 28, bringing the total time to 180 days, or six months.

Respecting the legal deadline “would seriously hamper the functioning of the institution because of the large number of documents involved in responding to the request”, specifies the response signed by the Director of Access to Information and protection of departmental personal information.

“Consultations with other federal institutions are also necessary to follow up on your request and would make it practically impossible to meet the deadline,” she concludes.

“An enduring issue”

The deadlines required by both the federal government and the Quebec provincial government to respond to access to information requests are “a major issue that has persisted for a few years and which does not seem to be improving”, notes the lawyer Marc Bishai, from the Quebec Center for Environmental Law (CQDE).

“One of the solutions would be to have more information directly available online,” to counter the difficulties experienced by some departments and public bodies in responding to requests on time, he said.

It is normal that sensitive information is not disclosed publicly, acknowledges M^e Bishai, citing for example the exact location of specimens of endangered species that must be protected.

“In other cases, it would be important for the public to be able to know what is happening,” he said, believing that the state has a duty to show how it is fulfilling its obligations, in particular to protect wildlife and wildlife. flora.

Commitment not kept

The CQDE also underlined last week the “fifth anniversary of a commitment not kept by the Government of Quebec” in terms of the public’s right to information, namely the creation of a public register giving access “in one just one click to essential environmental information.

Provided by the Environment Quality Act (LQE), the reform of which came into force in 2018, this register was to list all the ministerial authorizations requested or granted.

“Five years later, this is the only part of the EQA that has still not been implemented,” laments the CQDE, which is asking the Legault government to commit to creating it by the end of the year.

“We are aware that there is still work to be done and that is why I have asked the teams of my ministry to present me with a timetable for the implementation quickly for the posting of this register online”, indicated the Minister of l Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, in a statement sent by his office, noting that the Registry of Environmental Assessments, the Registry of Protected Areas and data on the quality of the are available.

In the meantime, the processes for contesting a refusal to transmit documents or the imposition of an additional delay to do so are themselves “imperfect and should be improved”, both federally and provincially, says M^e Marc Bishai.

“It’s very difficult for us members of the public to challenge those kinds of motives, because we don’t know what’s going on inside a department or public agency,” he says. .

With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press