Alberta Ranks Last in Transparency Study

Alberta Ranks Last in Transparency Study by Centre for Law and Democracy, April 9, 2012
The Centre for Law and Democracy today released the results of a comparative study which highlights problems with Alberta’s access to information legislation. … Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) finished last in the group. … “Given the repeated political scandals involving a lack of accountability, we hope that the this study will raise awareness about the urgent need to improve Canada’s access to information laws across the board.” Alberta’s poor score came mainly as a result of the narrow scope of the law and the overly broad regime of exceptions. These loopholes, which include blanket exclusions for the offices of MLAs and for information relating to government contracts, severely undermine the ability of the law to function properly as a tool for public accountability. … Canada came in 40th place worldwide with a score of 85. Alberta would have placed 51st on that survey, just behind Angola, Colombia and Niger.