MPs begin amending Access to Info bill, but many suggestions voted down
OTTAWA — MPs have amended the government’s much-criticized Access to Information bill by placing a check on plans to give federal agencies the power to refuse to process access requests.
Members of a House of Commons committee voted to give the information commissioner authority to decide if an agency can decline to handle a request.
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith says it’s an important safeguard because an agency would have to get the commissioner’s approval before rejecting an application for federal files.
Transparency advocates and the commissioner herself sounded alarms about the bill because, as originally drafted, it would have given federal departments authority to simply reject a request it deemed too vague or frivolous.