TORONTO – An improvement in how the CBC responds to Access to Information requests has bumped up its grade from an F to an A, and all it took was for senior leadership to get on board says Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada. But at least one other major media company believes Legault is giving the CBC too much credit for just showing up.
On Thursday Legault released a special report to Parliament ranking the progress the CBC and Canada Post have made over the past two years on federal compliance with the access law. Canada Post only went from “Red Alert” status to an “F.” The Access to Information Act allows people who pay $5 to seek federal files ranging from expense reports and email messages to briefing notes and internal audits.
“What these two latest report cards demonstrate, in stark terms, is the difference that leadership and engagement can make in addressing issues of delay in the system. In just two years, senior management at the CBC transformed that organization into one committed to meeting its obligations under the Access to Information Act,” writes Legault.
“I attribute the CBC’s success to strong statements and actions by the president on the importance of transparency for a public organization,” she added.
In 2009-10 the CBC refused nearly 58% of the Access to Information requests it received, and even when the CBC did approve a request it normally took nearly half a year for them to respond. But the refusal rate dropped to 4.2% in 2011-12 and the average response time has since dropped from 158 days to 36 days over the same period. The CBC says its refusal rate as of September, 2012 is 2%, the lowest it has ever been since becoming subject to the Act. The number of complaints filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner related to delays also dropped from 384 in 2007-2008 to zero at the end of this past quarter.
But Quebecor Media questioned how the Commissioner assessed the CBC’s performance saying the grade was based on “self-defined, vague, subjective criteria” instead of determining the CBC`s ability to provide “expeditiously and in full, the information requested by Canadians.”
"It’s as if a teacher gave a dunce an A for showing up in class more often, even though he was still flunking his exams," said J. Serge Sasseville, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Institutional Affairs, Quebecor Media.
As recently as last week, Quebecor Media, on behalf of its Sun Media Corporation, says it presented a very different picture of CBC/Radio-Canada’s performance to the CRTC.
On that occasion, Colonel Michel Drapeau, a recognized national expert on access to information, explained that the improvement in the Corporation’s deemed refusal rate merely reflects its ability to provide an acknowledgement of receipt within the statutory 30-day limit and in no way indicates its ability to disclose the information requested by the public promptly and transparently. It can still claim extensions, exemptions, exclusions and exorbitant search fees in order to prevent or significantly delay genuine disclosure of information, an area in which CBC/Radio-Canada is highly proficient.
Even Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada conceded the public broadcaster had a “tough start under Access to Information, but we’ve worked hard to turn the ship around.”
“The Corporation has taken concerted action on multiple fronts to fix the problems we had responding to requests. This grade confirms that we’re on the right track. The protocols, the mechanisms, and the support we now have in place will allow us to live up to the standards that Canadians expect and deserve from their public institutions.”
Lacroix says he made compliance with the Act a corporate priority after receiving the failing grade and communicated the importance of transparency and compliance with the Act to all staff. Senior leadership emphasized the importance of transparency throughout the institution and highlighted the expectation that sectors would fully support access to information operations.
To date, 105,352 pages of information have been released by the Corporation, much of which can be accessed in the Proactive Disclosure section of the corporate site. CBC/Radio-Canada claims it is the only Crown Corporation and the only broadcaster to disclose this volume of records on the management of its activities.
But Quebecor responded that the Commissioner herself still found numerous shortcomings at the CBC, including 71 new complaints against CBC/Radio-Canada in 2011-2012, including 55 complaints concerning refusal to disclose information; 234 complaints about CBC/Radio-Canada have yet to be resolved; and the 36 days to process is still 6 more than the requirement under the Access to Information Act.
Legault also cited that CBC/Radio-Canada takes "an overly technical approach to the application of the law.” Quebecor noted that during the period in question, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against CBC/Radio-Canada for trying to “act as judge and jury on the access to information requests it receives, causing complaints to be put on hold for more than three years.”
The CBC’s Lacroix insists the public broadcaster’s commitment to transparency and accountability is ongoing and remains a top priority.
“It is front and centre in the objectives of every member of our senior management team. Getting an “A” was one thing. Maintaining it will now be our next objective. We have to continue to live up to this standard,” concluded Lacroix.
The Office of the Information Commissioner has recommended that CBC/Radio-Canada allocate more staff to dealing with complaints and was told that the Corporation would hire more people if necessary, and only if budgetary pressures permit.
"As Canada’s largest press group, Quebecor Media believes that Canadians, who expect the access to information system to guarantee that they can obtain information on the government agencies that spend their money, would have preferred to see the system’s main watchdog provide an objective appraisal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s ability to provide that information, instead of an assessment of its ability to lay on the charm. It is unfortunate that the Information Commissioner should issue a report card that amounts to a refusal to hold the public broadcaster accountable, as every public agency should be held accountable to the citizens,” added Sasseville.
