Striking the right balance for transparency : Recommendations to modernize the Access to Information Act

My recommendations will address ways to modernize the Act: To deal with the current realities and expectations of Canadians; To simplify the administration and the application of the Act by focussing only on the interests that legitimately require protection; To increase timeliness in the processing of access requests; To permanently resolve recurring issues; To align the Act with the mo [...] The right of access has quasi-constitutional status in Canada.2 The Supreme Court of Canada has also held that the overarching purpose of access legislation is to facilitate democracy by helping ensure that citizens have the information they need to participate meaningfully in the democratic process and that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.3 The right of access also [...] The minister is ultimately at issue were notes taken by the exempt responsible for the department’s activities.5 However, in staff of the Minister of National Defence 2011 the Supreme Court of Canada determined that during regular meetings of the Minister, ministers’ offices are not institutions covered by the Act.6 his Deputy Minister and the Chief of the Defence Staff. [...] Relevant factors include the substantive content of the record, the circumstances in which the record was created and the legal relationship between the institution and the record holder. [...] The 2014–2015 Estimates lists the combined budget of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Courts Administration Service, the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs and the Canadian Judicial Council as $611,143,383.