Of Government Accountable and Open...

Remember last election, when Stephen Harper was then running up and down the country slamming the Liberals for dishonesty, and being secretive? Remember him promising that under his leadership, Canadians would have more open, honest and accountable government?

That was all fiction.

But a comparison of the flow of information between the 2005-06 fiscal year, which was mostly under Liberal rule, and the 2006-07 fiscal year, which was fully under the Conservative regime, shows the system has been slowing down.

Under the Access to Information Act, all Canadians can ask the government to provide documents on specific issues for an initial payment of $5. The information is supposed to be released within 30 days, but the government can extend the deadline for a number of reasons. It can also use exemptions to black out some of the information that is released.

In 2005-06, the government's access-to-information officers cleared 77.5 per cent of all requests within 60 days. Under the Conservatives, that number dropped almost three points to 74.7 per cent.

The percentage of requests that were met with a full disclosure of information stood at 28.4 per cent in 2005-06. The following year, however, the government started using a greater number of exemptions to censor information. In 2006-07, only 23.1 per cent of requests resulted in the release of unexpurgated documents - a drop of more than five points.

It's pretty hard to deny those numbers people. The Con$ have restricted your access to the government, and are continuing to do so.

Hiding information and making it hard to get is the act of someone who doesn't want you to see something.

However, when the Con$ervative platform last election read:

"The Liberal government has consistently rejected attempts to provide Canadians with better access to government information. The present Information Commissioner has gone to court several times to force the government to open its windows," the Conservative platform said.

The numbers themselves tell us that the Con$ were talking out both sides of their face.