Social Policy in Ontario

Tony Clement hatches open government plan

Posted on August 15, 2014 in Governance Debates

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – Treasury Board president spells out Ottawa’s path to open government.
Aug 14 2014.   By: Carol Goar, Star Columnist

Now — from the minister who saved the government $15 billion without telling Parliament what he cut; the policy-maker who eliminated Canada’s information-laden census and chopped Statistics Canada’s budget by $30 million; the MP who siphoned $50 million out of a border security fund to build to band shells and gazebos in his riding — comes Tony Clement’s latest initiative: a “ new action plan on open government .”

The Treasury Board president proudly announced this week he has prepared a draft policy “to increase openness and transparency in government.” He is inviting the public to comment
It will come as a surprise to most Canadians that a government known for its secrecy and obfuscation is “committed to fostering the principles of open government.”

It will astonish political observers that the Tories, who have systematically shut down Ottawa’s channels of communication “seek to engage citizens in a public dialogue that will inform the policy creation process.”

It will confound anyone who has followed Clement’s career that he is in charge of a campaign “to make valuable government information readily available to the public.”

Here is the oddest part: this is the second phase of Clement’s open government project. Phase 1 ended in 2012. According to Clement it succeeded in enhancing accessibility and transparency. The evidence suggests otherwise:

– Complaints to Canada’s information commissioner were up 30 per cent last year. Suzanne Legault warned parliamentarians that the public’s right to know is worryingly fragile.

– Parliamentary committees attempting to scrutinize government spending were denied access to essential facts and figures. When MPs persisted in delving into federal expenditures, the Tories adjourned the hearings.

– The parliamentary budget officer was also stymied. Ministers withheld departmental documents and bureaucrats ignored his requests. At wits’ end, Kevin Page threatened to take the government to court.

– Members of the media, who act as the public’s eyes and ears in Ottawa, were barred from speaking to cabinet ministers. They had to settle for anodyne statements approved by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted or emailed by Tory aides.

In Clement’s defence, he did download 172,000 government documents on a new Open Data Portal . An additional 100,000 have been now been posted.

Phase 2 was launched last March. Over the course of the spring and summer, the minister held panels, workshops and round tables in eight Canadian cities (Toronto’s session took place on July 24 between 1 and 3:30 p.m. at the Northern District branch of the Toronto Public Library). Six meetings were convened for civil society representatives.

Those who missed these consultations — apparently unaware of Clement’s blogs, tweets, news releases and email updates to those who signed up for his open-government list — will still get a chance to participate, he says.
He now intends to “engage with Canadians to refine and strengthen” his proposals (which are still under wraps).

But there are enough clues in the minister’s public statements and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s management style to deduce what lies ahead.

Clement’s objective is to “create a more cost-effective, efficient and responsive government” — in other words, save money.

The rollout will take place as thousands of jobs in the public sector are being cut. Clement, who has already reduced the federal payroll by 20,000, expects to chop 9,000 jobs by 2016-2017. That means the new regime will be technology-driven, shutting out Canadians who don’t have Internet access.

No matter what Clement prescribes, the PMO will keep vetting all outgoing information, controlling what cabinet ministers and Conservative MPs say and stopping anything with the potential to harm the re-election prospects of the Conservative party from getting out.

Given the torpid pace of policy development, it is unlikely Clement will table anything before Parliament is dissolved for the 2015 election campaign.

A work-in-progress plays in the Tories’ favour. It allows Harper to promise open government legislation as soon as Parliament reconvenes. It allows Clement to trumpet all the consultations, workshops and round tables he has held. And it allows the Conservatives to deflect accusations that they have weakened one of the cornerstones of democracy.

There is one flaw in the strategy: voters judge governments by their actions. They judge challengers by their commitments.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/08/14/tony_clement_hatches_open_government_plan_goar.html >

Tags: budget, ideology, participation, rights

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