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Nanaimo Council discussion around limiting FOI requests ‘horrifying’ to hear: expert

Apr 24, 2018 | 6:17 PM

NANAIMO — An information advocate says recent discussions by Nanaimo Council about deterring residents from filing freedom of information requests are a frightening new development.

Mike Larsen, president of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association and criminology co-chair at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, said any position against FOIs isn’t the right stance.

“That’s a horrifying thing to hear, the idea that government bodies and councillors are having meetings about how to disincentive the FOI process. The solution to problems with transparency isn’t opacity,” he said.

At Monday’s meeting, while discussing how City staff are overwhelmed by freedom of information requests, coun. Jerry Hong suggested raising rates to collect the data and also charging for any request which cost less than $50 of staff time, which legislative services staff currently don’t do.

“I think that we should try to charge for everything,” Hong said. “I get that it’s more difficult, but maybe it’s going to deter a couple of people from doing this…We should be trying to limit and narrow down specifically what they’re after.”

His sentiment was broadly shared among the Council majority, to the point where coun. Gord Fuller did some quick math on how many requests the $50 fee would reduce.

Larsen said making more information accessible to residents is the ideal way of lessening the load, which requires between 15 and 20 hours of staff time a day according to a staff report.

“Many cities and government ministries are starting to move to a process where they’re posting copies of released requests, so people interested in getting information already have a starting point.”

City Clerk Sheila Gurrie also suggested to Council providing more information would remove the need for an FOI request. Steps were taken five years ago to streamline the internal  process, but Gurrie said the initiative wasn’t finished due to time constraints and staff demands.

The number of FOI requests has increased steadily over the last five years in Nanaimo, with more than 600 anticipated by the end of the year. Legislative services already handled 182 by April 23.

Larsen said despite Nanaimo’s high-profile political scene, many of the requests are likely mundane.

“People are looking to know what their governments are doing, they’re looking to get information they need to be involved, either as citizens of democracy, businesses shaping policy, you name it.”

No decision was made by councillors about the overwhelming number of FOI requests.

 

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit