Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The open era

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, October 21, 2010 12:51pm - 0 Comments

The Liberals have now set out their open government agenda, which would, in addition to restoring the long-form census, include as follows.

Make as many government datasets as possible available to the public online free of charge at opendata.gc.ca in an open and searchable format, starting with Statistics Canada data, including data from the long-form census; Post all Access to Information requests, responses, and response times online at accesstoinformation.gc.ca; and Make information on government grants, contributions and contracts available through a searchable, online database at accountablespending.gc.ca.

David Eaves has some thoughts. The NDP’s Charlie Angus has also tabled a motion generally calling on the government to pursue open source ideals.

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  • Emily

    Finally catching up to Australia, the UK and the US.

  • John

    Pretty tough to disagree with this.

  • ZestyMordant

    This is the best of the Liberals proposals to date.

    OPEN SOURCE DATA NOW!!

    • Dave

      Liberals: Please add "Abolish Crown Copyright" to your to-do list. Thanks.

  • Matlock

    In addressing productivity challenges in the Canadian economy relative to the OECD, opening up idle government data sets to the public to help spur research and innovation can only be seen as a good thing.

    Let's hope that this moves forward.

  • LaxAtlDfwYow

    Finally, a little thoughtful – rather than pandering – leadership.

  • LaxAtlDfwYow

    Next step: commit to properly and permanently funding a truly independent Parliamentary Budget Officer akin to the U.S. CBO.

  • Geiseric

    It's about time. Paying for stuff we've already paid for has stuck in my craw for years now. Although likely it has allowed StatsCan to satfisy it's polical masters with reports demonstrating faithful implementation of the paradigms de jour, the revenue the current "business model" generates is a joke anyways.

  • john g

    Can't really argue with most of this.

    My only concern was the bullet point that Canadians will be able to submit Access requests directly online. That just seems like a recipe for chaos. How large a bureaucracy would you need to handle the demand of something like that?

    • Emily

      Oh, probably a thousand Bob Cratchits…..or one computer.

      • Jan

        Just went onto the government site. I love how they handle it now – you can fill out the request form online, print it out and then MAIL it in with the required $5.00 check and/or money order. Or you can print it out and fill it in by hand and then MAIL it…Crikey it is 2011.

        • Jan

          I seem to be running a year ahead…

    • McC_

      Access to Information requests are huge time consumers, and what's worse, a busy controversial file will attract more ATIP requests, putting extra burden on some of the hearest worked (hardest working) sectors of the Public Service. This isn't to slag Access to Information — it's a key public right and gov't responsibility, but it should certainly be "somewhat difficult" to make an ATIP request on matters that can't be questions of open source data (e.g. requesting "all the briefings, emails and correspondence on the Windsor-Detroit border crossings from January 2006 to October 2010")

      • john g

        Exactly. ATI is important but it's not something that any Tom Dick and Harry with a web browser should be able to instigate.

        But other than that, this seems to me like a very positive policy proposal. The Libs are to be commended for this.

        • Mike T.

          Why on earth not? I'm Joe Citizen, and I have filed ATIs in the past. If a request is getting time consuming and expensive, the government can notify you that there will be additional costs and you can decide if you want to pay more than your $5 to continue.

          As a bonus, most lay requests will come from stuff in the news and will be on the same topic. it cuts down on work because you can get the same package of documents and send them to everyone who asks.

    • Stewart_Smith

      I am pretty sure your guys have figured out the answer to the logistics issue. With a small tweaking of the redaction formula, sheets of black paper could be sent to anyone requesting information. The paper presumably could be bought in bulk saving time, money & effort.

      As a bonus, the individual Canadians and Canadian organizations that store these sheets of black paper will represent a new innovative approach to carbon storage. Saving the planet and improving response times on Access to Information requests at the same time, thats standing up for Canadians!

    • John.K

      The US seems to be able to do it – see for example:

      http://www.state.gov/m/a/ips/

    • Jan

      As I read it – what they're recommending is putting online what requests have been made and what the government response has been.

    • madeyoulook

      But john, the more the info is opened up anyways, the less someone will NEED to file an access request.

      Q: "I want to know how much were the travel expenses for the deputy minister of transportation last fiscal year."

      A; "Then enter your search right here and poke around the web pages for yourself."

      • john g

        But not everything will be like that. Don't get me wrong, the Liberals are to be commended for the amount of information they want to make available but obviously Access to Information is not going away.

        My chief concern is that if it's made too accessible such that any fool with a web browser can create ATI requests, people will abuse it. They will launch trivial meaningless requests for no other reason than to create meaningless work and cause chaos. Or 500,000 people will launch ATI requests when some mini-scandal breaks.

        As long as safeguards are in place to prevent this kind of "denial of service" attack, then I would withdraw my concern and endorse this plan in its entirety.

        • madeyoulook

          People can launch online requests for all sorts of free and nominal-cost government publications already. I bet the burden is underwhelming.

          And if 500,000 people launch more-or-less similar ATI requests "when some mini-scandal breaks," the government need respond once, post it up for all to see, and move on.

          I understand your chief concern, but look at the hair being pulled off of scalps as we try to figure out why so few people vote, before you get too worried here.

          My chief concern is the Liberals will get cold feet whenever they are back in power, and make the head of this office anything less than an independent-officer kind of thing, like the PBO or Auditor General.

    • Dave

      Not much larger than you need now. The lock on the floodgates isn't the technology, it's the five dollar application fee.

  • burlivespipe

    How about also asking the government the same thing? They kinda hold the keys to the family car right now…

  • Greg Arious

    Ahh, another liberal promise. I will just file that next to, get rid of the GST or maybe next to, Daycare for everyone, or maybe just hold my breath.

    • Jan

      Given how the Cons have delivered on their accountability promises, criticism from them is meaningless.

    • Emily

      By all means, hold your breath

    • gottabesaid

      Or, maybe you could talk your party into adopting this policy, then we wouldn't have to rely on those lyin' Liberals to institute what is otherwise a good idea.

    • Richard_S_Argent

      Hey Greg,

      Just wonderin'…who actually introduced the GST?

      • Gary

        Irrelavant question to the point he was making you tool!

    • tedbetts

      Harper is nothing if not efficient. He's broken more than twice as many promises in less than half the time it took the Liberals.

  • E_B_

    I really don't think most people care about the 'democracy issues' all that much, so I'm not sure the Liberals (or any other political party) would score many points by talking about "Democratic Renewal".

    The people, like us, who post on political blogs certainly care. However, I believe your average citizen doesn't pay any attention to actual political goings on. All they care about are not having taxes go up and not screwing up the economy too badly.

    For the most part they are pretty tone deaf to anything else that is going on. That has to be true, or they would be going after the current government with pitchforks for what they have done just this past summer.

    • Jan

      Ah the old chestnut talking point, 'real' Canadians are too busy drinking Timmie's coffee and watching hockey to care about anything the Liberals might suggest. Double double yawn.

      • E_B_

        You really think very many people are paying any attention to these so-called day to day 'scandals'? Other than around here, I haven't heard anyone complaining about prorogation, coalitions, censuses, or anything else that gets the shorts in a knot of the people who post here.

        'Real' has nothing to do with it.

        If you think any of these issues will resonate with a significant percentage of the population, go for it. I wish you luck. I certainly would like to see more people who are passionate about how our parliament works, or doesn't work.

    • kcm

      Agree with you entirely. But i'm not suggesting a buch of egg head stuff, more a suggestion that there is an appetite out there for some small but noticeable changes that might help to reduce voter apathy and or cnyicism. Having your mp be a more effective and independent voice would be a start. Of course people will never be entirely satisfied whatever changes occur. But right now there is a lot of : "it doesn't matter what i think [ or vote even] since the're not listening and only in it for themselves anyway" attitude out in normal person land. I believe the opposition and the libs in particular missed an opportunity to paint themselves as reformers…but i'm not surprised, they all talk a good talk but when it comes to giving up power or sharing it around no-one wants to make the first commitment.

  • bergkamp

    "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"

    What is it with Liberals and their love of databases? Liberals want to increase taxpayer's burden even more than it already is in order to provide 'free' information that six people will actually care to look at.

    I have visions of billion $$$ boondoggles being operated out of Montreal to launch the Open Era.

    • Emily

      Just curious….do you ever stop to think about something before you post, or do you just start typing anything that comes to mind?

    • tedbetts

      Who cares if accountability and good governance cost money.

      In fact, as Stephen Harper himself has said, Parliament just gets in the way of government work. He's also said that elections are very cost wasteful (about the only waste he's ever cared about but anyway…). We should just do away with all this expensive democracy stuff and defer to the political elites running things for us right now.

      Only then will they be able to make the trains run on time. Now didn't someone else use that line in history at some point?

      • TJCook

        "Who cares if accountability and good governance cost money. "

        Exactly. In fact, I'd argue that the only thing more expensive than accountability is a lack of accountability.

    • Dave

      How much does the Economic Action Plan Sign Database cost?

  • madeyoulook

    This is an excellent idea, and I congratulate the Liberal Party for putting it forward.

    I shall, however, quibble with the erroneous charge that the Harper government "eliminated the long-form census." It would not have killed them to be accurate: "made the mandatory long-form census voluntary."

    • Stewart_Smith

      I thought according to the experts the census became a survey through all this.

      So cutting through all the spin and hype wouldn't it be accurate to state that the nasty Tony Clement brutally murdered the noble long form census and brought to life its evil sibling, the intrusive bathroom survey.

      • John

        Yeah Jan is right. It ceases being a Census when it is no longer mandatory.

    • Andrew (not PorC)

      A voluntary survey is not a census. They killed the long form census and introduced a survey.

  • Reverend_Blair

    I'll bet Harper beat up a chair and maybe a desk when he saw this. He's done everything he can to stop access to information requests, and now the Liberals are pushing to make that public.

  • PeteTong

    Are you telling me that the Liberals want information about the number of bathrooms in my house posted on the web for all to see? Perverts.

  • Tiffany Lee

    There is no doubt that the front-end loading for this initiative could be substantial. However, I would suspect that pertains primarily to those elements that facilitate public access, not those elements that facilitate data organization or private access to data. It's ridiculous to think that the government collects data and does not organize or query it themselves for use in some manner, and that there are not already costs associated with that. I imagine that public access would form an extension of something that already exists.

    We potentially stand to benefit a great deal from this at what might be only incremental cost. And ultimately, the economic reward for public access would be significant.

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