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CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 139 Ï NUMBER 041 Ï 3rd SESSION Ï 37th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Monday, April 26, 2004 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire´´ at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 2361 HOUSE OF COMMONS Monday, April 26, 2004 The House met at 11 a.m. That is why we in this party will be supporting the bill in principle. When we take a look at the amount of information and Prayers what a government does today and compare it to even one generation ago, the business, the budget and everything else, we need that information and Canadians need that information. I am Ï (1100) saying that the bill is very important mainly because of the [Translation] democratic deficit that we are facing in this country. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair): It is my duty, pursuant to I want to tell a little story about accountability and access to Standing Order 81(14), to inform the House that the motion to be information. It goes back many years ago when I was principal of a considered tomorrow during consideration of the business of supply school. My office was at one end of the building and my youngest is as follows: daughter was in a classroom at the extreme other end of the building. That, in the opinion of this House, there being a serious democratic deficit in When she would drop into my office to say hello I would ask her Canada, particularly in the domination of the executive over the House of Commons what she was doing at this end of the building. She would say that by providing to the Prime Minister the sole political prerogative to determine when she had come to use the washroom. I would tell her to go back and Parliament should be dissolved for the purposes of a general election; use her own washroom and back she would go. That, unless the government loses the confidence of the House, general elections should be held on fixed dates; and That the government should bring in measures to establish fixed election dates to I received some information about six or seven years later be held on the third Monday of the month that is four years after the month in which the polling day for the most recently held general election fell. concerning my daughter. She told me that during those times she had been sent down by her teacher to see the principal and to tell him that This motion, standing in the name of the hon. member for West she had been misbehaving in class. When she went back to her Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, is votable. Copies of the motion are classroom the teacher would ask if she had spoken to her father and available at the table. she would say “yes”. I tell that story because it compares very much to what happens PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS when someone puts in a request for access to information. They want Ï (1105) the story. They want everything. Sometimes we get asked, if nothing else, to rewrite the question. The questions in many cases do not [English] need rewriting. It is the answers that are rewritten so as we and OPEN GOVERNMENT ACT Canadians do not get the total information. The House resumed from February 24, consideration of the motion that Bill C-462, an act to amend the Access to Information For instance, suppose I were to ask questions through access to Act and to make amendments to other Acts, be read the second time information about the Saskatchewan junior hockey league at the and referred to a committee. present time, which receives no salaries, and asked why the only Mr. Roy Bailey (Souris—Moose Mountain, CPC): Mr. Speaker, pure amateur hockey league in Canada was subjected to an audit I am pleased to support my colleague's bill, Bill C-462, an act to when no other pure junior hockey league in Canada was. Would I get amend the Access to Information Act and to make amendments to an answer? No, I would not get an answer because there is no excuse other acts. for that happening. We need to correct problems like that and I believe Bill C-462 would correct a great deal of that. I would like to begin by posing a question. Has there ever been a time in our history since Confederation in 1867 that we needed more timely and quicker access to information than we presently have The bill proposes 37 different amendments. What we find in those today? If we were to put that question out there, not only to the amendments is that Canadians, through their members of Parliament, House but to the public in general, I think they would say that we would be able to get information that otherwise they would not be need this act very badly. able to get as individuals. 2362 COMMONS DEBATES April 26, 2004 Private Members' Business Ï (1110) That is why I am asking all members of this House to take a look at my colleague's bill. It will do a whole lot for democracy in I will give a case in point. At one of my border crossings, a huge Canada. Let us not turn it down. There is too much good in this bill. building has been constructed, apparently by the government. The building has now been sold. Was it legally tendered? Nobody out there knows. How many private offers were received? Nobody Ï (1115) knows. What did the building sell for? Nobody knows. How much was paid for the building? Nobody knows. That type of information Hon. Sue Barnes (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of is not doing anything to knock down the democratic deficit, not one Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am little bit. pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-462, which is a lengthy private member's bill that would make a considerable This bill reflects the work of an all party committee formed two number of amendments to the Access to Information Act. Indeed, I years ago. For two years they have worked on this bill and I think do not think it is going too far to say that Bill C-462 constitutes a that the two years' work done by this committee deserves the proper major effort to overhaul the Access to Information Act. attention of this House. I think it deserves the support of every member of this House. Albeit it is a private member's bill, but every member should support this bill so that we can go to the people—it Clearly, the member for Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough— is much more timely now, with an election coming up—and say that Aldershot once again has focused our attention on the Access to we now have an access to information bill through which they can, Information Act by bringing forward his extensive bill. Accordingly, through their member of Parliament, get the information they want my purpose today is to comment on the member's bill, which I and should have. intend to do from more than one perspective. Before doing that, I want to take a moment or two to make some introductory and I know, and every member of this House knows, that there are background comments. certain bits of information that are private. There are certain bits of information that should not be divulged, such as when courts are in session and all the rest of it, but at the same time, the government can I do not know if all the members of the House are aware of how manufacture more excuses for not providing Canadians with the long the member has been working on reforming the Access to information they need. Information Act. I believe I am right when I say that he first introduced a private member's bill to amend the act in the fall of As I said at the outset, and I will repeat it again, there has never 1997. The bill was then numbered as Bill C-264. The member made been a time in the history of this country like this, when Canadians certain improvements to Bill C-264 and reintroduced it in 1998 as need to get that information and they need to get it quickly. Bill C-206. In the summer of 2000, Bill C-206 was defeated. Prior to Canadians have a right to know what is going on in government. this, the member had twice obtained more than 100 signatures in At the present time, the committee on public accounts cannot even support of his bill. get the information it wants from the people who could and should be giving them that information. This is what is upsetting Canadians today. This information is guarded, it is secret and it is locked away. I want to elaborate on a point to which I alluded a moment ago, That has created in this country a democratic deficiency like we have which is the importance of access to information legislation. Here in never had before. These 37 amendments would do a whole lot to Canada, we are fortunate to have had such legislation in place at the prevent the government from acting and working in secrecy. federal level since Canada Day 1983. As so often happens, we have a tendency to take this for granted because we have benefited from For instance, back in the 1930s, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation the Access to Information Act for more than 20 years.

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