The government that promised to be open has the capacity to answer important questions about its two year eligibility rule. It could answer those questions today, but it is playing arrogant games and refusing to provide information that the public has a right to know.

For over a week the Minister of Human Resources, Murray Coell, provided ridiculous rhetoric about socialism rather than answering questions about the number of people expected to lose their income assistance benefits when the maximum two year eligibility takes effect April 1, 2004. Victoria Times Colonist columnist Les Leyne wrote that the Minister needs help from emergency workers once they are free from the floods, so as to rescue him from his obsolete message box. A lead editorial in the Vancouver Sun called on the Campbell liberals "to live up to their promise of open and accountable government by giving us the information we need to judge for ourselves whether the two-year-in-five rule is sound policy."

Under that pressure Coell stalled for time by saying that he has instructed staff to prepare a report by January 2004. The problem with that answer is that in the legislature Joy MacPhail and Jenny Kwan have read a Ministerial briefing note that contained the blanked out answer when it was released as part of a freedom of information request. Day after day the Opposition has asked Coell to fill in the blank. What was in his briefing note?

In January 2003 Coell floated a trial balloon about putting liens on the homes of people who who remain on income assistance for more than 6 months. I put in a freedom of information request asking how many clients, as of January 1, 2003, had equity in a home and were in receipt of income assistance for a period of more than 6 months. I also asked for a regional breakdown using the Ministry's 9 regions, and a breakdown by age. The Ministry responded in March saying that the Social Policy Branch of the Ministry would gladly provide me with the information without the need for a freedom of information request. A spreadsheet containing the data was emailed to me. That data allowed me to say that only 2.5% (1,965 cases) of those who receive temporary income assistance have any equity in a home, and only 2.2% have equity in a home and have been on income assistance for at least 6 of the previous 12 months. The data also pointed to probable regional discrimination, if the trial balloon became policy, since a person in the "Heart Attack Lands" is more than five times as likely to have some equity in their home when they apply for assistance than a person in Vancouver.

The ability of the Ministry of Human Resources to respond to my request for detailed data that required a search through the Ministry's information system on the variables of home ownership, region, age and length of time on assistance proves their ability to provide information when they want to. Not only does the answer to the Opposition's question and the question posed by the Vancouver Sun editorial already exist in the Minister's briefing note, but his Social Policy Branch could easily generate detailed reports on the number of people on income assistance who are classified as employable by length of time on assistance and any other variable that any reasonable person might require.

Refusal by Coell to answer a simple question is political arrogance of the worst kind and a direct violation of Campbell's campaign promise to provide open government. It is also a violation of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (a remedy would take many months).