Despite outcry, committee makes few changes to Access to Information bill:
A Liberal-dominated committee is sending the government’s Access to Information bill back to the House of Commons with few changes, despite the deep concerns of transparency advocates and opposition MPs.
Committee members rejected most of the amendments put forward Wednesday, including some from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.
The Access to Information Act allows applicants who pay $5 to ask for federal documents, but it has been widely denounced as slow and antiquated.
The Trudeau government says the bill, introduced last June, represents the first real modernization of the law since it took effect in 1983.
It would give the information commissioner new authority to order the release of records as well as entrench the practice of routinely disclosing documents such as briefing notes and expense reports.
But many who testified at the committee, including information commissioner Suzanne Legault, dismissed the legislation as a step backward.
The bill is fatally flawed and will make Canadian democracy weaker, said committee member Nathan Cullen, a New Democrat MP.
“The Liberals chose to ignore just about every piece of testimony that we were given. It just mocks the whole process and their commitment to evidence-based decision-making,” Cullen said after the meeting.