Whatever happened to open government?

Hey kids, remember the days when we thought that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives were going to create more accountable and transparent government? Good times, eh?

The Tories certainly promised, after the sponsorship scandal and all that Liberal chicanery, to do things differently. After all, they are the grassroots party of government by ordinary Joe and Jane Canadian, right? But to make responsive and open government work, Joe and Jane need to know what’s going on. It’s a democracy thing.

We now know, after almost exactly six years with the Conservatives in power, that no such democratic thing ever happened. If anything, vigilant centralized political control over messaging and information has diminished access to government for almost all Canadians.

Provinces, journalists, public interest groups, members of Parliament and ordinary citizens are finding it harder than ever to get clear, timely responses from government about what it’s up to. The federal public service no longer even tries to inform the public that pays its keep.

So anything more sensitive than the weather forecast is treated like a military secret. All messages must be approved by the prime minister’s office, causing lengthy delays between the query and the response. Almost all requests for interviews with cabinet ministers are denied. If interviews do happen, ministerial staff try to impose conditions. Government MPs seem too terrified to talk.

But hey, journalists are all part of some vast left-wing conspiracy, so why should they get any access to information? And those public advocacy groups, they’re all radicals and busybodies. Provinces? Some of them are OK, but the rest are a bunch of whiners. Oh yeah, opposition MPs are mere opportunists.

More and more, Canadians are being conditioned to think openness is a luxury, not part of the bedrock in a strong democracy.

But at some level, must it not be recognized that openness and accountability are in the public interest? If that is recognized, shouldn’t the highest levels of government encourage and even champion access and transparency? It’s one of those promises that all parties make and on which none ever seem to deliver.

Many Canadians must have voted for what they thought would be a new Tory era of transparency and accountability. It’s a new era all right, but it’s one of opacity, closure and secrecy.

The troublesome thing is, it works. From a political perspective, the message is under control at all times and the Harper Conservatives have fewer dingbat eruptions than any government in memory. They’re not immune from gaffes, but they manage to keep their pants on.

And the fact that it works has been noticed by other governments, including here in Nova Scotia. This is cause for concern. Because if all governments decide less transparency is better, our rights as citizens are going to erode.

But that’s what is going on. Darrell Dexter and the NDP, elected in 2009, had three years to observe the Harper method. While of a wildly different ideological stripe, the NDP appears to have absorbed the lessons of centralized message control.

There are channels of approval for pretty much every word coming from the Dexter government. And for exactly the same reasons as the Harper government: It wants to keep its message consistent from the premier’s office right through government.

But at the same time, it is also doing all it can to slow the flow of information to the public. Bureaucrats demand email exchanges rather than phone calls and often direct troublesome inquiries off to the access to information process.

And while the freedom of information regime has many positive attributes, it will never substitute for the idea that taxpaying citizens should be able to call their government and get straight and timely answers.

Even the Halifax regional government is circling the wagons. Journalists are now frequently asked to submit their questions in writing. More routine requests get routed through central command at City Hall. It’s almost like Ottawa, without the bully-boy tactics.

No one would argue that government efficiency isn’t a good thing. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of openness and public access.

Original Article
Source: the Chronicle Herald