In times of crisis, governments often sacrifice transparency for expediency and efficiency.

We saw it during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Public and private bodies were lacking in transparency with regards to the actions they took to combat the pandemic. Misinformation, dishonesty, self-promotion, fraud and waste all flourished to some degree in the prevailing secrecy.

Canada now faces an emergency over President Donald Trump’s economic attacks, threats and bullying. Federal and provincial governments need to be open with the public as this crisis unfolds; secrecy can undermine trust in government and thereby erode national solidarity.

With an election now in full swing, there is an opportunity for federal party leaders to commit to fix our transparency laws, especially the Access to Information Act.

The Liberals under Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015 promising major repairs to the Access to Information Act. They quickly discarded some of their election planks, and only half-delivered on others. The Liberals then lost all interest, and let the system wither and crumble. 

Response times now are appalling – so much so that journalists are abandoning access-to-information in droves. Barrels of black ink are drained every week to censor the documents that make it out the door. 

The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, has promised faster processing and more transparency for access-to-information requests, though the details have never been spelled out. You also have to be wary of a former Harper cabinet minister who, when in office, acquiesced to the usual secrecy.

The flaws in the Access to Information Act have been studied to death. We already know what’s broken: too much material is captured by bogus “cabinet confidence” claims; departments have far too much discretion to delay their responses to requests; the information commissioner needs more teeth and more money directly from Parliament, rather than going cap-in-hand each year to the very government she policies. These and a few other changes have topped every user’s wish-list for years.

The election and its aftermath come at a fateful moment in Canada’s history. More than ever, Canadians need to have confidence in their leaders. Trust is earned through transparency. And that means fixing the laws that are supposed to provide it.