YUKON DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION NOT OPEN AND ACCOUNTABLE
The Yukon Development Corporation is being excessively and unnecessarily secretive, says NDP leader Todd Hardy.
Using the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the caucus earlier this month asked the Crown corporation for its ministerial briefing notes. But what it got back this week was a 28-page document with all but five pages completely blacked out.
"This is unacceptable and I strongly urge Jim Kenyon, the minister responsible for the YDC, to instruct the officials working there to be less secretive and more co-operative," Hardy adds. "This information should be available to anyone and everyone who asks for it."
The NDP caucus asked for ministerial briefing notes for every government department and corporation.
All the others appear to be complying fully with the request, even though many of the pages in these documents are also stamped ‘Confidential and Privileged Advice to the Minister’.
Ministerial briefing notes are used by cabinet ministers to answer questions in the legislature from opposition politicians. They are prepared by staff and include such things as background, recommended responses and message boxes.
The YDC used section 16 (1) of the ATIPP Act to severe the requested information. This section says, ‘A public body may refuse to disclose to an applicant information that would reveal advice, recommendations, or draft acts or regulations developed by or for a public body or a minister.’
"I commend all the other departments and corporations for providing the information we asked for," Hardy says. "The YDC stands out like a sore thumb for its lack of co-operation. The minister must tell this government body, clearly and forcefully, that it has a duty and responsibility to be more publicly accountable."