Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

OTTAWA - The federal government is refusing to release hundreds of pages of information regarding options for potential job cuts in the public service.In May, CanWest News Service made a specific request under the Access to Information Act for government documents which ”analyse or discuss job cuts in the public service, or the moving of positions out of the national capital region.”

Of the 484 pages identified as relevant to the request, only four containing benign talking points were released. They say only that government departments are ”developing options to restrain spending growth, while minimizing disruptions to the delivery of programs and services.”

To keep those options out of the public eye, Privy Council Office bureaucrats turned a Section 69 exemption under the access act, which apply to what the government considers cabinet confidences. It is the only one that can’t be reviewed by Canada’s information commissioner to ensure the censorship is legitimate.

Although the Stephen Harper-led Conservatives have said on numerous occasions that billions in proposed spending cuts will be ”friendly” to the public service, the union representing federal bureaucrats has expressed fear that longer-term plans may involve layoffs.

John Gordon, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said in an interview the government’s refusal to release so many pages leads him to believe the prime minister ”is not willing to show his true colours” on the subject.

”My fear is that when they feel the timing is right, they’re going to go to an election, hopefully get the majority, and that’s when we’re going to see the true face of the Harper government with respect to the public service,” he said. ”This only heightens my feelings towards them.”

He added the censorship ”doesn’t sound very good to me.”

In a written statement, a spokeswoman from the Privy Council Office said if bureaucrats determine the information is a cabinet confidence, withholding it is the only option under the law.

”We must protect it,” Hali Gernon said. ”In order to preserve the confidentiality essential to Canada’s cabinet system of government, the act does not apply to confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council that are less than 20-years-old.”

Under the act, Canadians pay a $5 fee to request a wide range of government documents, including briefings, audits, travel expenses, and others.

The law has been roundly criticized as out of date and too restrictive, however, because it gives bureaucrats vast powers to withhold and black out information.

Although the Conservatives vowed to improve the act including opening up several Crown corporations to more scrutiny as part of their omnibus Federal Accountability Act, proposed reforms were met with scorn this spring by information commissioner John Reid.

The Tory reforms include 10 new exemptions to block the release of information, eight of which contain no requirement for bureaucrats to demonstrate why records shouldn’t be disclosed.

source: canada.com