Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner announced Friday she is launching four simultaneous inquiries into the provincial government’s bold new strategy of refusing to release any of the 600 pages of results from its Alberta Next surveys, pages which apparently contain so much democracy that the public must never see them.
The surveys asked Albertans for feedback on such light, low-stakes topics as creating a provincial police force, starting a provincial pension plan, and selectively denying immigrants social services, essentially the political equivalent of a BuzzFeed quiz titled Which Controversial Policy Are You?
Postmedia filed freedom-of-information requests last June and July, naively assuming that requesting information might lead to receiving information. Instead, the province declined all four requests, citing concerns that the documents might be “misinterpreted,” “misunderstood,” or “read.”
The commissioner says her inquiries will determine whether secrecy truly is the cornerstone of modern governance, or whether Alberta is simply allergic to sunlight.
