Freedom-of-information requests coming up empty, B.C. group complains

A group that advocates for government transparency has filed a complaint with B.C.'s information commissioner, pointing to a significant increase in cases where the province responds to freedom-of-information requests by claiming it couldn't find any documents.

The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association suggests the trend is either a reflection of a government that avoids keeping records to skirt the law or a sign the province isn't releasing all the information it could.

"We've seen examples where you'd expect records to exist and they don't exist," the association's executive director, Vincent Gogolek, said in an interview Thursday.

"The phenomenon is clear. The records are not coming out."

The group used data posted to the government's website to track cases in which the government determined it could not find any records to satisfy a freedom-of-information request.

The numbers indicate such cases accounted for nearly a quarter of all requests in 2011-2012, compared with less than half a per cent in 2002-2003.

For requests from the news media, that number jumps to 34 per cent, when there were no such cases in 2002-2003.

Gogolek wrote the province's information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, asking her to launch an investigation. Denham's office declined to comment but confirmed she had received the letter.

Last year, Premier Christy Clark promised a new era of accountability, saying her government would release more information without the need for freedom-of-information requests, distribute documents released through such requests through its website, and post a host of government data online.

On Thursday Citizens' Services Minister Ben Stewart repeated the government's previous claim that much of the increase in requests that do not generate records is due to requesters using a centralized online form to send the same request to multiple ministries.

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Freedom-of-information requests coming up empty, B.C. group complains