{"id":200,"date":"2015-02-25T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/25\/baie-durfe-too-small-to-adhere-to\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:35","slug":"baie-durfe-too-small-to-adhere-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/25\/baie-durfe-too-small-to-adhere-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 \u2018too small\u2019 to adhere to information law"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frank<\/b>
www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The town of Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 claims that it is too small to comply with the provisions of the province\u2019s access-to-information law. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe town is a small municipality of 3,850 residents and has limited administrative staff,\u201d city clerk Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Bourque told the Quebec Access to Information Commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re simply unable, without seriously undermining the city\u2019s activities, to do the digging…needed to respond to such a request,\u201d she said in a letter to commission chair Jean Chartier, Jan. 19. <\/p>\n

Bourque wrote the letter opposing several information requests, including one from resident Gaetano Ionata that asked Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 to divulge details of the more than $3.6 million in \u201cautres” or \u201cmiscellaneous accounts\u201d expenses that it reported in the town\u2019s 2013 financial statements. <\/p>\n

According to Access to Information Commission spokeswoman Isabelle St. Pierre, Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 wants to use a loophole in the law for \u201crequests deemed abusive or frivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see about 50 such requests per year,\u201d she said in a telephone interview from her Quebec City office. \u201cThe organization that asks for the exemption has the burden of proving that it can\u2019t respond to repeated or systematic requests.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mayor Maria Tutino also complained during the December council meeting that adhering to the transparency law was overloading Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9\u2019s civil servants. However, town manager Nathalie Hadida favoured the filing of access to information requests during the subsequent Feb. 10 council meeting.<\/p>\n

\n
When resident Richard Eastveld asked for information pertaining to the town\u2019s purchase of allegedly contaminated land, Hadida told him that he had to file an access to information request. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will then evaluate whether the document can be released,\u201d Hadida told him. \u201cIt will be the town clerk\u2019s department that will determine this.\u201d <\/p>\n

St. Pierre confirmed that the commission has opened a file on Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9\u2019s petition to be absolved from responding to the information requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a mediation process involved that might help the parties reach a settlement,\u201d she explained. \u201cOtherwise the case will go before a judge. Once a case has been heard, the judge has three months to render a decision.\u201d <\/p>\n

Legislation pending<\/b><\/p>\n

The dispute might prove moot, given the Liberal government\u2019s plans to tighten the province\u2019s transparency law. <\/p>\n

Next month, Access to Information Minister Jean-Marc Fournier is expected to unveil details of an update to the law, that will force Quebec government organizations to make their documents available free of charge via the Internet. That would spare individuals the need to file cumbersome and time-consuming access requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinister Fournier plans to table a position paper within the next few weeks,\u201d Access to Information Secretariat spokesman F\u00e9lix Rh\u00e9aume told The Suburban.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be the first step toward reforming [Quebec\u2019s] access to information law and serve as the basis for subsequent review by a parliamentary committee,\u201d he said in a telephone interview.
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\nAccess to Information Minister Jean-Marc Fournier wants to put more government information at the fingertips of the taxpayers who paid for it.<\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com The town of Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 claims that it is too small to comply with the provisions of the province\u2019s access-to-information law. \u201cThe town is a small municipality of 3,850 residents and has limited administrative staff,\u201d city clerk Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Bourque told the Quebec Access to Information Commission. \u201cWe\u2019re simply unable, without seriously undermining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBaie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 \u2018too small\u2019 to adhere to information law - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/25\/baie-durfe-too-small-to-adhere-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baie d\u2019Urf\u00e9 \u2018too small\u2019 to adhere to information law - 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