OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation applauded reforms to federal access-to-information law proposed in private member’s bill C-461, tabled today in the House of Commons by Brent Rathgeber, Member of Parliament for Edmonton-St. Albert.
“These reforms improve a vaguely-worded statute that’s forced the Information Commissioner to go to court on multiple occasions, to secure the disclosure of public information by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas.
“It cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars because an officer of parliament was forced into costly legal battles with a government-owned corporation to obtain public information, Thomas continued. “The law needs to be clear.”
Thomas said the bill will give the Information Commissioner the tools she needs to do her job, while safeguarding the ability of the CBC to protect its journalistic sources and its intellectual property.
The CTF also applauds a tighter definition of salary ranges for high-priced government executives.
“Federal government executives should be subject to the same kind of salary disclosure we see in Ontario, with the Sunshine List,” said Thomas. “The reforms in Bill C-461 are a step in the right direction to providing taxpayers the salary numbers they’re entitled to know.”
The bill would also enable taxpayers to force disclosure of the specific duties of federal executives.
“Taxpayers should know what work these high-priced government executives are doing, and what they’re being paid to do it,” said Thomas.
Gregory Thomas, Federal and Ontario Director
