Province finds insidious way to jack up cost of transparency to British Columbians
How much does it cost to get public information out of your provincial government? If you said, nothing, it should be free — oh, you witty little jokester, you know deep in your heart of hearts that such a beautiful thing couldn’t possibly be true in this mess of a modern world.
“Can the government do this? Yes,” he said in an interview. “Should the government do it? I’d argue what they should do is take a close look at how they respond and find a way to respond to that sends a message to the public about transparency.” So how did the government pull this hike off without anyone noticing? It was a series of small changes over time, each innocuous on their own, which added up to a steep bill the public now can’t avoid.
Embedded inside that enabling legislation was a clause that would let all public bodies charge the application fee. It didn’t have to do this. But once someone figured out the potential for all the red tape and money, there was no putting that toothpaste back in the tube.
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