WHEN the NDP revealed last week the B.C. Liberals' plan to sway ethnic votes in key ridings, many wondered if the cynical plotline would be tied directly to Premier Christy Clark.
After all, it was her deputy chief of staff and longtime ally Kim Haakstad who sent out the leaked email detailing how the civil service was to be politicized in the run-up to the election. Surely, the uninitiated wondered, there would be other smoking-gun emails in the premier's office that could be found with a freedom-of-information request.
Not likely. Journalists have known since Adrian Dix backdated a memo to file that political parties have learned to keep secrets by not keeping records - at least not in the open.
It's a sad political reality that Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham confirmed Monday: transparent government does not exist in B.C.
Denham's investigation shows that the government answer of "no records" to FOI requests has increased from approximately 12 per cent in 2009 to 25 per cent in 2012.
The office with the largest staff and the fewest records? You guessed it: the premier's office, which had no records to share in 45 per cent of FOI requests in 2012.
To be clear, the government is breaking no law in communicating orally or deleting emails. But as Denham has said, the government has a duty to document an accurate record of government actions.
We hope that the next government of B.C. will take steps to reform FOI legislation so that information is required to be kept.
