Tory MPs on ethics committee order CBC documents by Nov. 14

OTTAWA—Conservative MPs on the House of Commons ethics committee have passed a motion ordering CBC/Radio-Canada to produce documents it has withheld under the Access to Information Act. The order was sent to the Crown corporation late Wednesday following a meeting of the committee and the passage of a motion to do so. At an ethics committee meeting last week, Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, proposed a motion that would require the CBC to produce withheld redacted and unredacted documents to Parliament. The Tory motion was passed Wednesday during an in-camera meeting boycotted by NDP and Liberal committee members. “We believe the motion clearly oversteps the division of powers between the legislative and judicial branches of government,” the NDP said in a statement. House committees hold the power to order the production of documents, but it is rarely used. Minutes from the meeting Wednesday show that the ethics committee agreed to order the CBC to produce redacted and unredacted documents related to access-to-information requests made by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Quebecor Media Inc. The passed motion ordered the redacted and unredacted versions of documents “in order for the Committee to determine and assess exclusions” under the Access to Information Act. The documents include requests from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation asking whether the public broadcaster “was in any way financially compensating prominent members of the lobby/advocacy group ‘Friends of the Canadian Broadcasting,'” as well as the “financing of any programs or films concerning the Quebec Nordiques team,” and the number of employees falling within different income categories. Other documents ordered, requested by Quebecor, pertain to inquiries about the CBC’s fleet of vehicles and its 75th anniversary celebration planning budget. The motion says CBC/Radio-Canada must produce the ordered documents by Nov. 14, 2011. At an annual public meeting and a celebration of the CBC's 75th anniversary late Wednesday afternoon, Lacroix said the corporation had not yet received any requests for documents. “As you know, we will probably review what is being asked of us,” he said. “Our intention is to always collaborate with the ethics committee, in the context of also protecting the values that we have of protecting the principles that are in the act.” Even as CBC celebrated its 75th birthday, Lacroix could not escape questions from the audience about its transparency under the Access to Information Act. He acknowledged that the infamous Section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act, which allows the CBC to exempt documents pertaining to its creative programming or journalistic activities, has become a conversation piece. “People are actually starting to know what 68.1 means,” he said. He said the CBC now has a website where 27,000 pages of information can be found. The CBC has also posted an online quarterly report showing its improvements in transparency and public accountability, Lacroix said. “Accountability, transparency—you’ve heard us say how important this is,” he said. The CBC initially did not respond well under the Access to Information Act because it was surprised by the number of requests received, he said. Prior to being placed under the Access to Information Act in 2007, CBC thought three or four full-time employees would be enough to deal with information requests, he said. “We thought we were going to get about 80 or 90 requests, let’s say, on a couple months basis,” he said. But in its first year, the CBC received 500 access-to-information requests, 400 of them from Quebecor, which competes with Radio-Canada in the Quebec's French-language market. “We were surprised the commissioner was surprised,” Lacroix said. “The staff wasn’t able to respond and our turnaround time was bad.” When Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault appeared before the ethics committee on Oct. 26, she suggested that the CBC had made significant improvements. Legault said that prior to the dispute over access to the CBC's records, a 2010 report from her office said the public broadcaster had a 60 per cent information refusal rate and that it took an average of 158 days to respond to requests. But now the CBC is reporting an average response time of 57 days and a refusal rate of 22 per cent, Legault said. “You’ll know more about us and the reports that we file with government, the CRTC, and evidently our board, than probably any other broadcaster or public company in the country right now,” Lacroix said. In an interview with Ezra Levant on Sun News Network's The Source on Nov. 1, Heritage Minister James Moore said that, when the Conservative government placed the CBC under the Access to Information Act, it expected the corporation to abide by the rules. “I think finding loopholes, or even skirting the perception of accountability, for the amount of taxpayers’ money that they get, is inappropriate,” Moore said. He said excuses to avoid accountability do not follow the intent or spirit of the law and taxpayers should know where the CBC's money is being spent. CBC/Radio-Canada receives $1.1 billion in annual parliamentary appropriations, but like other departments and agencies, it too will face budget reductions as the Harper government seeks to find annual savings of $4 billion. Moore said the CBC must understand that it is accountable to taxpayers, and if it does not, “then we’ll take appropriate action,” meaning that the application of the Access to Information Act could be strengthened or tightened up. “We’ve made it clear to him , both publicly and privately, that we expect the CBC to be accountable to taxpayers for the money that they’re spending,” Moore said. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Tory MPs on ethics committee order CBC documents by Nov. 14

Broadcast | November 3, 2011

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