By Andrew Macdonald
- MacPolitics: Nothing Free About Freedom of Info Request – Biting The Bullet To Get My Info On the Wine Industry
I reported last summer that the NS Government wanted to charge me $3,800 for info on the NS wine industry.
In this case, there is nothing free about my freedom of info request.
I have now fine-tuned my information – instead of looking for a year’s worth of Houston government wine documents, I am looking for a six month period.
My request was made under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
My request: “Please provide for the period of November 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024 all correspondence to or from Michael Ingram, Executive Director at Finance and Treasury Board, regarding Nova Scotia wine policy including emails about wine policy changes and any emails containing issues notes or briefing notes with a copy of any attachments. That will include email exchanges with other Finance department staff, staff at the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, any federal government officials, and any other people where the exchange relates to wine policy including the NS Emerging Wine Region Policy, the Commercial Wine Support Policy or other initiatives related to wine.”
My original request which would have cost me $3,800 to get 4,000 gov documents was a period ranging from 10/31/2023 To 04/29/2024.
In order to lower the cost of the info, I changed the scope of the timeline for documents between November 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024.
Now, instead of 4,000 gov documents, the revised request would involve 1,100 documents.
But there is still a cost of $1,050 to get the revised timeline documents – a figure I will pay to get access to the wine documents held by the NS government.
But now, I have to wait longer for Houston gov documents, originally filed under the Freedom of Info Act last June 2024.
“I wish to advise you that the Department of Finance and Treasury Board has found it necessary to extend the deadline beyond the initial 30-day extension that we claimed in our letter of June 12, 2024. To do so we have requested an extension from the Information
Access and Privacy Commissioner (formerly the Review Office). They have approved an extension until November 15, 2024,” wrote Chris Mack, with the Freedom of Info office.
“The reasons for this extension are that a large number of records is requested or must be searched and meeting the time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the Department; and that more time is needed to consult with a third party or other public body
before the Department can decide whether not to give you access to the requested records,” he adds.
So instead of paying $3,800 for gov documents, I am now paying $1,050.
I should note in Opposition, Tim Houston promised to modernize the Freedom of Info Act. In government, he has not done so.
