Government Secrets

May 10, 2002

Government Secrets

It took the Campbell government less than six months from the time it announced "core review" to Black Thursday when it announced major cuts to BC's public service. The Campbell government is taking longer to answer my freedom of information request for core review documents than it took to complete the entire review!

Surrounded by controversies over health cuts, school closures, doctor strikes and union busting, not to mention a faltering economy that has shown tax cuts do not pay for themselves, it is easy to forget major decisions made by Premier Campbell that helped BC get to this point. Campbell packaged many of those decisions under the rhetoric of a "core review". The top level government website still carries a picture of Campbell immediately followed by a link to the core review web pages.

Core review was announced by the Premier in a July 31, 2001, news release. That release was accompanied by copies of detailed letters Campbell sent to each of his ministers. Those letters said "The Core Services Review is a comprehensive and rigorous examination of all provincial programs and activities." Least anyone doubt how comprehensive and rigorous the core review was to be, on August 2, 2001, the Premier's office released a 26 page document titled "Guidelines for the Core Services Review" (pdf).

The "guidelines" laid out a timetable that included four phases for the review as well as a series of tough questions. Students and commentators on public policy would be hard pressed to argue with the appropriateness of the "guidelines". I was so impressed that on January 20th I submitted freedom of information requests to each ministry in government asking for some of the documents that were required under the "guidelines". In particular, I asked to see the impact assessments for any changes.

A month after my requests were submitted, I started to receive virtually identical letters from every ministry. All but two of those replies to my request said:

"I regret to inform you that Information and Privacy Branch is unable to provide access to the records you have requested because the records do not exist. The August 2, 2001 Guidelines for the Core Services Review were published at the start of the core services review process. The guidelines were produced to give ministry executives a foundation on which to base their analysis and to give them a sense of the issues and questions that would be raised as they considered the future direction of their ministry. Significant latitude was offered, because Ministry representatives were considered the best judge of what information would be of interest to the Core Services Review and Deregulation Task Force. Each ministry approached its analysis differently. For this reason, there are no records dealing with the specific questions that you have raised."

Isn't it comforting that the Premier's directions are followed so closely. A cynic might suggest that either the Campbell government attempted to deceive the public with the original claim that the core review would be "comprehensive and rigorous" or, alternatively, perhaps some ministries are lying about the existence of documents.

Two ministries confirmed that the requested documents exist. On March 20, 2002, the Ministry of Transportation said that four records exist but they were excepted from disclosure because they would breach cabinet secrecy or harm the interests of the government (Sections 12(1), 13(1) or 17(1) of the Act).

On February 18, 2002, the Ministry of the Attorney General confirmed that documents with approximately 328 pages of information relevant to my request really exist. A series of delays however have resulted in those documents still being kept secret. The latest postponement was based on the Ministry's request to the Freedom of Information Commissioner to grant yet another extension to allow the Attorney General's Ministry to further consult with the Ministry of Management Services before releasing the documents. Those documents are now to be made available by May 27, 2002, although based on performance to date, no one should hold their breath.

In opposition, Gordon Campbell lectured the government on freedom of information and said "just release the documents". Those words are still true today.