Following the post, A Year Later, No Town Policy Re Routine Requests For Information, a second request to council is on its April 12 agenda: for council to adopt the Information and Privacy Commissioner recommended Routine Disclosure and Active Dissemination Policy, revised in 1998.
Why do we need this policy? Because in the spirit of accountability and transparency, it is my opinion that not every request needs to be a formal freedom of information request.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner encourages municipalities and has produced, with the City of Mississauga, a resource, Routine Disclosure/Active Dissemination A Best Practice in the City of Mississauga.
Also from the IPC website:
Open Government
Open Government is based on the core belief that the public has the right to access the records and proceedings of government to enable greater openness, accountability, and engagement. Its goals are to:
- improve the quality of governance and services by becoming sustainably more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to the public and
- enable the public to make better and more informed decisions, resulting in an improvement to the quality of their lives
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has long stressed the need for enhanced public access to government-held information. Accordingly, it is a strong supporter of Open Government.
The IPC encourages all institutions under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to determine how they can begin or expand their Open Government activities. Our office is actively offering resources and support to institutions embracing this more open approach.
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