The long overdue Airport Parkway Bridge will undergo a transformation this year after safety concerns arose with the original design, according to a report by Delcan engineering firm released by the city.

Delcan’s report, confirms that a steel bridge deck will replace the original concrete platform, which was in the process of being built.

Last fall, engineering firm Genivar was fired by the city because of structural problems in its plan of the bridge. Delcan Corporation was hired to complete the rest of the Airport Parkway Bridge, which will link the Hunt Club community to the South Keys transit station.

Delcan reviewed the partially completed structure and found that there were many deficiencies, including cracks in the concrete tower and in the bridge deck-these are obvious safety concerns.

In the report, obtained through a municipal freedom-of-information request, Delcan says the steel-designed bridge platform will reduce the weight put on the central tower. The cable wires attached from the top of the tower to the bridge deck are expected to be more reliable than the originally planned pipe equivalent.

The firm also notes that if one of the pipe-stays were to break, it “would almost certainly result in the collapse of the bridge.”

At the Finance and Economic Development Committee in March, SEG Management Consultants presented a third-party review of the project and outlined future recommendations.

The review noted a number of issues not only in the original design plans but also regarding the poor communication between staff, elected officials, and the public.

Structural problems during the building of the bridge have caused a three-year delay, making the completion forecast late 2014.

Since 2008, the budget has increased to $11.5 million from $6.5 million.

Last fall, Delcan began a review to recommend a more efficient plan to complete the bridge.

The Delcan report highlights concern for the original Genivar design, which received no further consideration in future plans.

Their report also revealed that the original construction plan violated provincial Environmental Assessment requirements.

Under the Environmental Assessment criteria “the bridge is to span the current and future roadways and ramps for the Airport Parkway with a clear span, and hence with no intermediate piers.”

Because of the proposed addition of a column in the centre of the parkway, the design layout didn’t conform to the required criteria. Adjusting environmental regulations to fit the design could take up to 12 months, so that idea was not pursued.

After assessing various design possibilities, Delcan settled on the steel, cable-supported bridge, instead of the original concrete deck with fixed pipe support.

“The steel cable-stayed bridge design includes an orthotropic steel deck, steel framing and steel handrails, and is an all-steel construction supported by conventional cable-stays to the tower. ”

The existing tower on the East side of the parkway, remnants from Genivar’s work, will be incorporated in the current plan.

For many in Ottawa, this long over-due project has been an embarrassment to the city.

Deputy city manager, Nancy Schepers, has overseen the development of the Airport Parkway Bridge.

She says the city took action during the initial stages of construction when they realized there were issues with Genivar’s design in terms of the “longevity of the structure”.

“Genivar is responsible for their design and we are in litigation with them. We had a stamped engineering drawing that we were working with and as I’ve said to council, we became very concerned,” says Schepers.

Since Delcan’s report has been released, Schepers is optimistic that the date of completion will remain the end of 2014.

“We’re continuing to move ahead with the project as the design is being finalized,” says Schepers.

ATI Requests at each level of government

Previously released ATI requests

Communication between government agencies

This is a report by  Delcan engineering firm, which highlights the safety concerns related to Genivar’s original Airport Parkway Bridge design and outlines Delcan’s current design plans. This report was obtained through a municipal freedom-of-information request released by the City of Ottawa. This information was useful because it shows that the previous bridge design by Genivar violated the provincial Environmental Assessment Requirements. It also states that the new bridge proposal will take these conditions into consideration by omitting a centre pier.

This is a report by Delcan engineering firm, which highlights the safety concerns related to Genivar’s original Airport Parkway Bridge design and outlines Delcan’s current design plans. This report was obtained through a municipal freedom-of-information request released by the City of Ottawa. This information was helpful because it explains Delcan’s decision to replace the concrete bridge platform with a lighter steel bridge deck. It also underlines why the cable wire support is more reliable than the pipe equivalent. Ultimately, it describes the details of the chosen design plan for the Airport Parkway Bridge.

The First Nation the federal government asked to endorse the First Nations Financial Transparency Act did not get to see a copy of the bill before it had to issue a statement in support of it, documents obtained under Access to Information laws reveal.

According to a letter from Whitecap Dakota First Nations Chief Darcy Bear dated Dec. 2, 2011, he didn’t see the Financial Transparency Act – also known as Bill C-27 – until it was introduced in Parliament Nov. 23, 2011. He was asked to issue a statement in support of it earlier in the day using background notes that left out important information.

“We did not have the opportunity to review and analyze Bill C-27 in its entirety… I do wish to emphasize that we provided our endorsement of the new Bill C-27 based on our support for the former Bill C-575,” Bear wrote in the letter.

When asked why the press conference was scheduled before the bill was introduced, Aboriginal Affairs did not provide a reason.

“Following the introduction, all First Nations leaders and community members were encouraged to participate in the parliamentary process,” the department said in an email.

The Financial Transparency Act, passed by the federal government in March 2013, required First Nations post the salaries and expenses of elected officials as well as audited financial statements that include information on band-owned businesses to their websites within four months of the fiscal year-end on March 31, 2014.

The bill is similar to Saskatoon MP Kelly Block’s private member’s bill, which was tabled in 2010. It was lost in the 2011 spring election.

Bear wrote in his letter the reason he supported Block’s bill was because it focused on reporting the salaries and expenses of chiefs and councilors and federal funding. He was concerned the Financial Transparency Act requires band-owned businesses to disclose detailed financial statements – private companies in Canada don’t have to.

Bear, who could not be reached for comment for this story, requested a to make a deputation before committee. He proposed a series of amendments – some successful.

The amendments include clearly delineating what elected officials’ salaries and expense are and limitations on what financial information band-owned businesses will be required to release so that they won’t be at a competitive disadvantage.

Bear has also has repeatedly said the 120-day reporting period outlined in the bill is too short and that bands should not have to disclose financial information to non-members. Neither of those issues were resolved.

Aboriginal Affairs was asked why it is important to disclose the information to those outside of individual First Nations communities, but didn’t provide a reason.

According to an internal document from Nov. 21, 2012, the committee’s response to Bear’s concern about making the information widely available was that it will allow investors, economists, media and the public to analyze and compare the data, like they do for other governments and departments.

“This also will lessen the burden on individual members who may not feel comfortable asking for financial information from their First Nation or pursuing court action to have it released,” the document said.

If First Nations don’t comply with the requirements of the Financial Transparency Act, the Aboriginal Affairs Minster could withhold federal dollars or terminate funding all together.

It’s a punishment some are questioning the constitutionality of.

According to documents summarizing the concerns of committee witnesses, the Canadian Bar Association — the lone critic brought in — raised concerns that if Minister went that route, the federal government may not meet its obligation to provide essential services to all Canadians.

WHITECAP DAKOTA FIRST NATION CHIEF DARCY BEAR’S LETTER

This letter, dated Dec. 2, 2011, is from Whitecap Dakota First Nation Chief Darcy Bear to Saskatoon MP Kelly Block released from the federal government’s Aboriginal Affairs department under Access-to-Information laws. It details concerns Bear has with the First Nation Financial Transparency Act, including the fact he was asked to endorse it without seeing a copy. This information was helpful to shed light on the fact that even the First Nation leader in support of the Financial Transparency Act has serious concerns with the parameters of it.

There’s a problem with how the Canadian government stores important information. In some cases, it doesn’t.

The issue came to light in a series of letters written last April and obtained through an Access to Information request.

The letters begin with the information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, writing to Treasury Board President Tony Clement, about missing policies.

Legault writes that there is no formalized system in place to ensure records from a government organization that is closed, or joins another government office, are saved.

Records can disappear or, even if they are saved, be impossible to search through because no one will know what’s in them or how they’re organized.

Clement responded saying all the documents from an office that is closed are subject to the Library and Archives Act and taken care of by Library and Archives Canada.

That is not good enough according to Michel Drapeau, a lawyer and Ottawa University professor specializing in access to information law.

“It’s obviously a gap,” Drapeau said. “There is a legal vacuum there.”

If you’re looking for documents from an organization that has closed “there is nothing you can do,” Drapeau said.

The Access to Information Act allows anyone to request records from a public institution, including emails, memos, and meeting minutes. But if those records don’t exist, they can’t be asked for.

Legault’s concerns relate to over a dozen government offices that have, or soon will be, closed or amalgamated.

The lack of policies means that there is no consistency with how records from these and other organizations are handled.

When the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal was closed in April last year, its records were transferred to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.

Diane Chartrand, the executive director of the Industrial Relations Board, was transferred as well. She not only knows the records well, she brought them all with her.

“I’m not sure if that’s how it works at every organization, but in this case that’s what happened,” Chartrand said about the transfer of records.

Chartrand said anyone wishing to file an access to information request for tribunal documents from before April 1 2013, can simply file the request through Industrial Relations Board now.

But if you’re looking for documents from International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, you won’t be as lucky.

The centre was closed in 2012 without a plan for its records. The case was bad enough that it made it into the Office of the information commissioner’s 2012-2013 annual report.

“We learned that some were sent to Library and Archives Canada and others to Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada,” the report says.

The information commissioner closed the file and recommended that the requester make a new request to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which should have received the records in question.

Drapeau says this type of problem is all too possible without clear policies, and there isn’t much someone looking for records can do.

He said you could make a complaint to the information commissioner, which would usually trigger a search for the documents, but because the organization no longer exists it no longer falls under Access to Information laws, so the information commissioner isn’t able to begin a search.

Drapeau said an option is to try a “wild goose chase” and file access to information requests at related government offices hoping they might have copies of the documents you’re looking for.

For now, Legault said in an email that she will “continue to monitor this situation carefully.”

A 2013 00011 AM (Dragged) (Text)

When you open the green one for a Metro, or grab an Ottawa Sun from the red, you might not know that the newspaper boxes  you count on every morning are sometimes others’ eyesores.

The latest complaint, revealed in a document obtained through access to information, was made by the former executive director of Glebe BIA last summer.

In an email to the City of Ottawa, Christine Leadman wanted seven newspaper boxes in front of a patio to be removed because they “negatively impact the aesthetics of the exterior perimeter of these businesses.”

The boxes were located on northeastern corner of Bank Street and the Fifth Avenue, right against the patio fence of a café named Roast N Brew.

After leaving the Glebe BIA for nearly one year, Leadman still remembers how much the boxes affected the café. “That nice patio has black fence with tables and chairs, but the newspaper boxes took away the value the place would have,” Leadman says.

Jihad Harb, the former owner of Roast’n Brew, was the one who initially approached  Leadman. He started running the café since 2010. He says the boxes didn’t matter too much in the beginning due to the renovation of Bank Street, because “everything was a mess”.

However, he then wanted to make things better. Harb says he tried to put on some trees between the boxes and the fence so that his customers wouldn’t notice the ugly boxes, but he failed.

“Those newspaper boxes were 100 per cent in my way,” Harb says.

The city soon followed up on the complaint. Two weeks later, four of the paper boxes were gone, and the remaining three were relocated on Fifth Avenue at the same street corner.

Although they are no longer in Harb’s way, Leadman says she still thinks they are unnecessary, because too many nearby corner stores sell newspapers.

Leadman says, “It’s just a marketing tool. They are not the main source where people can get newspapers any more.”

However, after paying a visit to each location where newspapers are available in Glebe – from the Glebe Avenue to the Fifth Avenue, Leadman’s opinion is not wholly correct, because not everything is available in the convenience stores.

Shoppers, Metro or even Starbucks, only provide paid newspapers, such as Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.

Although Ottawa Sun is a paid one and has its boxes on the street, the other boxes standing beside it are all free, such as Metro, Xtra, as well as other home magazines and business journals.

Please click the red dots to check the locations for newspaper boxes on the street;                    click the green dots to check the locations convenience stores which sell newspapers.

[Click here for the details of the by-law for newspaper boxes/services boxes.]

Don Muran, one of Metro‘s 18 newspaper guy  in the city, has to send out 500 Metro a day.

He says he has tried several times to put his newspaper into Starbucks, but he was finally kicked out because he was told that Starbucks’ other newspaper clients were complaining.

“It’s like an eight-year old is selling lemonade, and another eight-year old is standing beside her and sending lemonade for free. Of course it doesn’t work,” Don says.

However, what Leadman says about the newspaper boxes  are “no longer the assets to street” might be true.

Bruce McDonald, who works for the Glebe’s Britten, says he doesn’t consider free newspapers as his competitor for his 15-square-metre store that sells more than 100 magazines and 40 newspapers, he does think the boxes as eyesores.

“Covered with snow, filled with scrapped papers and coffee cups, they are just eyesores in the winter.” McDonald says.

That’s the same reason why Leadman might soon make more complaints about these boxes to the city.

She says right now her job is to clean up the snow on the street, but newspaper boxes could be her next target “depends on their maintenance and location”.

I: EXPLANATION FOR THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT FROM CITY OF OTTAWA.

This following page is the only useful page in the four pages of records I got from City of Ottawa.

(*) What is the information?

This is a document with two emails regarding to the complaint about the newspaper boxes. The information provides me the name of the original complainant about newspaper boxes in this case, who is Christine Leadman; the location of the original complaint, which is a restaurant with a patio located in Fifth/Bank; as well as the “fixer” from the government, Ermis Durofil, who is the Program Manager of the Right Of Way, Permits & Applications in the City of Ottawa.

(*) From which department and level of government did you obtain these pages?

The City of Ottawa.

(*) Why was this information helpful?

All these information helped me track down the people, their story and a bigger picture of the problems regarding to the city’s newspaper boxes. If I don’t have this document, I wouldn’t have my story.

II: DOCUMENTATION FOR ATIP ASSIGNMENT

Please click the document names to check my records.

Recently obtained documents from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
show that one of Canada’s largest poultry producers failed repeatedly to meet industry standards on safety and regulation.

Documents obtained from the CFIA through an Access to Information request show that the Maple Lodge Farms plant in Brampton violated numerous industry standards last July.

Among the violations were issues of sanitation, pests, animal cruelty and non-compliance.

Maple Lodge Farms is Canada’s largest independent poultry company. It also offers sandwich meat, chicken bacon, hot dogs and halal meats.

Documents show the CFIA inspector found sanitation issues within the IQF room of the plant on July 22. He noted heavy condensation on exhaust pipes passing over products, a dirty scale, fat build up on machines, and a big piece of meat and woodchips on the floor.

Inspection reports also reveal that problems regarding sanitation kept occurring and did not meet Maple Lodge’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).

These sanitation issues also followed several serious violations of regulatory requirements related to pest control. Inspection reports obtained cite CFIA inspectors who found cockroaches in the slaughter and deboning sections of the plant.

The CFIA is a government organization responsible for safeguarding food, animals and plants in order to ensure the health and well-being of Canadians. They verify that meat and poultry products leaving federally inspected establishments or being imported into Canada are safe.

The findings raise serious issues of consistency in poultry safety and regulation in Canada, says food science expert and Guelph University professor Keith Warriner.

He says poultry is the major contributor of food born illnesses and these reports highlight the need for more communication between plant workers and CFIA inspectors.

Warriner says the biggest area of concern with regards to improper sanitation is the risk of multi-drug resistant salmonella.

“When people actually get sick with this type of bacteria, and they go to the hospital to be treated, very little can be done because the bacteria has evolved to be able to fight off the effects of many antibiotics,” Warriner says. “The results can be deadly.”

But CFIA national inspection manager Tom Graham says despite these findings, regulations in Canada are very strong. “Other countries look to Canada as a leader in food regulation and inspection,” he says. “Obviously no system is perfect, but we are pretty up there.”

Graham says that inspections and food safety will improve through a new regulation coming out in 2015 under a new Safe Approved Canadian Act Regulation. He says that the regulation goes further with providing the CFIA the ability to fine companies, like Maple Lodge, who repeatedly break the rules.

But food expert and University of Manitoba professor Rick Holley says he thinks these new regulations won’t do much to improve poultry safety.

He says the main challenge within the government is ensuring that food safety
inspectors are rigorously trained to uniform standards.

“The root of the problem is not the inability of the CFIA to regulate, but rather their inability to get plants to recognize the importance of the changes,” Holley says.

He says a greater sense of consistency needs to exist to prevent miscommunication between workers and inspectors.

Both Warriner and Graham say the size and complexity of operations can lead to omissions.

“They’re working on thousands of birds a minute,” says Warriner.

He says that workers in the plants operate under intense pressure from management to produce and this could be why issues of sanitation sometimes fall through the cracks.

Warriner warns that while some violations are minor, reoccurrences can result in situations like the XL Foods beef recall in 2012-the largest recall of beef in Canadian history due to E. coli tainted meat that caused 18 to become sick. Reports later found that the reason for the recall was in part due to a failure to clean equipment properly.

Maple Lodge Farms representatives were not available for comment and did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails over the past week.

*Attached below is a small pdf of documents relevant to the ATIP assignment including requests to Veterans Canada, CFIA, and correspondences via email.  A lot of my correspondences were over the phone as well.

merged[smallpdf.com] (2)

*The last four pages in the pdf are the most relevant information from the 204 page document I received from my ATIP request.  It requested the inspection reports by CFIA inspectors produced at Maple Lodge Farms, Lot 2, Concession 6, in Brampton pertaining to the transport holding, and slaughter of poultry from July 1, 2013 to July 22, 2013.  Although there were a lot of relevant pages in the document- these four are the ones I focused on in my story.    The first discusses non-compliance issues in the IQF room of the plant and lists all violations.  The second  cites pest control issues over the course of a few days in mid July.  The third describes a miscommunication regarding an instance when the product was trying to cross the US border but did not have the right documents.  The final page is a write up of the plant not meeting the requirements for the humane treatment of animals.

This information was helpful in analyzing issues facing the plant and their broader implications for poultry regulation and safety.

Canada’s information watchdog is voicing concerns the federal government doesn’t have a system in place to deal with Access to Information requests when a department closes down.

In a document obtained through access to information, Suzanne Legault, the Information Commissioner of Canada, said in a letter to Treasury Board President Tony Clement in April 2013 the system lacks “clear transitional measures” and at least once a closure infringed on the rights of a document requester.

Access to information is a transparency system that allows the public to access government documents through filing requests.

Legault cited 16 closed or merged departments which could run into this problem, ranging from the Pension Appeal Board to the Wheat Board, and said she is starting a review to see if any other institutions could be affected.

Clement’s office, which oversees the access to information system, wrote back dismissing the problem, saying when a department closes the Librarian and Archivist of Canada takes control of those documents.

It said when institutions are closed or joined, “the existing Records Disposition Authorities, as issued by Library and Archives Canada, survive and continue to apply within the new organization.”

In an emailed statement, Legault said she’s concerned it still doesn’t seem as if “sufficient safeguards” have been put in place to “ensure the integrity of the public’s right of access to information held by the institutions that have been wound down or amalgamated.”

The issue originally arose when the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development closed and a requester couldn’t get their documents.

Since then, some of those documents have gone to Library and Archives Canada, while others went to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Ann Curry, a professor in Communication and Technology at University of Alberta who studies access to information and privacy, said Library and Archives shouldn’t have to deal with old access request files from closed departments.

“They’ve been so gutted with their staff and programs that they can’t cope,” she said.

“Having that government department absolve itself of responsibility by putting it on Library and Archives Canada, which they themselves are not funding, I think is a shameful situation.”

She also cited lack of funding for information management in departments as a key problem in this area.

“We should listen to our information and privacy professionals,” Curry said. “They have called for a close look at our access to information laws and privacy laws and said they’re out of date, and I agree.”

Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, says this issue shows problems with the access to information system but much more basic concerns should take front seat.

He said the scope of the law is too limited, exceptions are too broad, not all aspects of government are covered and there are no clear and fixed time lines for getting documents back.

“There’s no limit to the amount of time public bodies can give themselves to respond to a request. The courts are allowing more than three year extensions. That’s something I think the average guy on the street can understand is ridiculous.”

His organization puts out a joint rating of countries’ access to information laws, which ranks Canada as 55th in the world, out of 92 countries for its access to information legislation.

Mendel said the law was first adopted in 1982 and considered progressive at the time, but nothing substantial has changed since then.

“In a nutshell, it’s very weak.”

Documents obtained through Access to Information (see notes for relevant pages):

A 2013 00011 AM (Text)
Access to Information correspondence with other departments and levels of government:

ATIP Correspondence (Text)

As the international cruise ship industry expands, concerns about terrorism are growing, according to documents obtained from Transport Canada.

The documents, released under the Access to Information law, say demand for cruising worldwide nearly doubled between 1999 and 2009, with the number of passengers increasing to 16.93 million from 8.59 million. In addition, vacationers are coming from an increasing range of national, racial, ethnic and religious groups.

The documents say these trends likely will make cruises more appealing targets for terrorists who are “looking to maximize lives-lost and create publicity.”

Cruise lines are also expanding their operations to new, remote and potentially dangerous areas, such as the Middle East, which the documents say increases ships’ chances of dealing with foreign marine facilities whose security practices are not up to par.

Transport Canada withheld information about the documents’ author and publication date, and refused interview requests.

However, Dane Rowlands, director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said there is no publicly available evidence that suggests terror attacks on cruise ships are a big problem.

There have been five terrorist attacks on cruises in the last 55 years, according to the book Cruising for Trouble by Mark Gaouette, a former security director for American cruise line Princess Cruises.

The most recent assault occurred in 2004 when terrorists belonging to an Islamist separatist group bombed the SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay, Philippines. The attack resulted in 116 deaths.

However, Rowlands said recent attacks on cruise ships by Somali pirates in 2005, 2008 and 2009 are fuelling concerns about marine security.

“I think people are drawing a link from what they’re observing on the piracy front,” said Rowlands, who studies terrorism and counter-terrorism activities. “They’re saying, ‘Wait, criminals can do it… why not terrorists?’”

Although the number of terrorist attacks on cruise ships is relatively low, Rowlands said it’s important for governments and intelligence agencies to anticipate terrorists’ next moves. He said once a terrorist group’s ability to act in one area — such as air travel — is limited, it will shift to different tactics.

And there is evidence this is happening. Documents seized from an al-Qaeda operative in Berlin in 2012 revealed the terrorist group’s plans to hijack cruise ships.

The Transport Canada documents outline four recommendations for improving cruise ship security, including increased risk assessment and information sharing between governments. Rowlands said cruise lines worldwide should also look at standardizing screening practices in the way airports have.

A paper published in 2006 by the Rand Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy, a non-profit research institution, says cruise security checks remain “far less stringent” than those in airports.

According to the website for Cruise Lines International Association Inc. — the world’s largest cruise industry association — cruise passengers, crew and baggage must pass through a security checkpoint before embarking or disembarking. Additionally, crew members must undergo pre-employment background screening. But the website does not specify whether screening methods vary by cruise line or not.

The association did not respond to requests for an interview.

Rowlands said he thinks cruise ship companies tend to be more reactive than proactive with security practices because they don’t want to hurt business.

“This is a classic case where you’re more likely to see the barn door being closed long after the horses have galloped across the field,” he said.

Canada doesn’t own any cruise lines but the documents say Canadians represent about one-quarter of all cruise vacationers, not including U.S. passengers. Because of this, Rowlands said Canada should have an interest in helping improve cruise ship security.

“You don’t always want to be fighting the last war.”

BBritneff ATI Transport Canada Previously Released Records (Text)

EXPLANATION FOR THE ABOVE TRANSPORT CANADA RECORDS

1) What is the information?
The above pages are extracted from a larger document or paper that I think was written in 2011, but there’s no way to be certain. The pages contain information about trends within the cruise ship industry that the author believes might give rise to certain challenges, particularly terrorism, to marine security. The author breaks down the trends and explains why they might make cruise ships more appealing targets for terrorists. At the end of this section, there is also a short list of recommendations for improving cruise ship security worldwide.

The information also includes a detailed list of new cruise ship destinations in different regions of the world, scheduled for 2011.

Lastly, the information includes a list of facts and statistics about the international cruise ship industry.

2) From which department and level of government did you obtain these pages?
I obtained these pages from Transport Canada, a department of the federal government.

3) Why was this information helpful?
This information was helpful because it gave me the necessary foundation for a well-rounded story. It provided a twist on a popular mode of travel and thus gave me a news hook. The information was also helpful because it included some context and recommendations that inspired my research, my interview questions and the direction I took for story development.

DOCUMENTATION

Original Requests (7)
Please click to see copies of my REQUESTS for ORIGINAL FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL records

Previously Released Federal Requests (3)
Please click to see copies of my REQUESTS for PREVIOUSLY RELEASED  FEDERAL records

Correspondence
Please click to see copies of correspondence regarding my requests for ORIGINAL FEDERAL records

Please click to see copies of correspondence regarding my requests for PREVIOUSLY RELEASED FEDERAL records

Please click to see copies of correspondence regarding my requests for ORIGINAL PROVINCIAL records

Please click to see copies of correspondence regarding my request for ORIGINAL MUNICIPAL records

Records obtained from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development under the Access to Information Act suggest that enough money is provided to fight fires on reserves across the country.

Funding amounts were questioned following the preventable deaths of three children in fires at Pelican Narrows, a reserve community in northern Saskatchewan.

Emails from the the records state that current funding agreements afford Aboriginal bands “the flexibility to allocate the funds among the sub-communities”, but they do not always know how much money each individual sub-community ultimately receives.

Chief Peter Beatty of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, the band that oversees Pelican Narrows, says that bands are not independent in the way Aboriginal Affairs would like the public to think.

“At the end of the day, it’s Indian bands administering Indian Affairs programs on their behalf to on-reserve residents. So it’s not really true what they’re saying, and what they’re claiming. Because attached to all of that money is a whole slough of conditions and strings attached to every dollar being administered on their behalf.”

“To the general public, what they want to portray is that Indian Affairs is dumping truckloads of money onto the reserve. Which is not true. I wish it was, but unfortunately it is not.”

According to the access records, Peter Ballantyne receives $18,109 dollars per year in fire protection services for its eight communities.

That amounts to roughly $1.65 per person. Other Saskatchewan communities, such as the city of Saskatoon, operate on about $168 per person.

The records also state that $31,849 dollars from Peter Ballantyne’s band based capital was to be used as fire protection capital in Pelican Narrows.

Beatty says that band based capital is “flexible dollar”, and those dollars are almost always put towards housing. Even if that money were actually flexible, Beatty says that it wouldn’t make a difference.

“Even if they did give us $31,000, how far is that going to go?”

He says that his three major communities—Pelican Narrows, Deschambault Lake, and South End—would likely require upwards of ten million dollars in fire protection infrastructure and renovations in order to properly fight fires.

Deschambault Lake, for example, doesn’t have a firefighting capability beyond a hydrant, he says.

The records state that infrastructure money is to come out of the Capital Asset Inventory System, money that Beatty says likely couldn’t buy more than few loads of gravel.

The system is described in the access records as having “little meaning to the outside reader” and is “confusing”.

Aboriginal Affairs stated in the records provided that they have been collaborating closely with the Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada in order to assist First Nations in fire protection.

Executive Director Blaine Wiggins says that the organization acts as policy expert in terms of fire services, and it is not seeing the necessary dollars put towards those services.

“Funding is always going to be an issue. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether it’s fire services, or housing, or social services. There’s certainly a gap in funding on reserve.”

He says that he also recognizes a knowledge gap.

“We have a lack of capacity which sometimes more money can’t address. We have to build the capacity within the communities to maximize the expertise. A small volunteer fire department is not going to have professionals who are good at public education relative to fires.”

But that capacity won’t be built without money. Though the access records state that money is put towards the training of volunteer firefighters, they also indicate that Aboriginal Affairs does not actually track the number of on-reserve volunteer firefighters or how many reserves have a volunteer fire department.

Whether the gap is in knowledge or funding, continuing to ignore it doesn’t better equip Pelican Narrows for the next fire.

Representatives for Aboriginal Affairs did not respond to requests for an interview in time for publication.

Access Requests

Copies of Email Correspondence ATIP

ATIP Phone Conversations

Previously Released ATIP Requests

Answers to Questions About Document

Selected ATIP Pages (Text)

By Micki Cowan

The B.C. government is losing track of time when it comes to answering Freedom of Information requests, with recent numbers showing the lowest percentage of timely requests in five years.

Data obtained under Canada’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Act this month shows one-quarter of requests were not answered on time between April 2013 and January 2014.

An analysis of the data shows that number is the lowest since 2008-09 when 28 per cent were answered late, and significantly lower than the thirteen per cent answered late last fiscal year.

The Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services, which is responsible for Freedom of Information requests, declined interview requests.

In an email response, ministry spokeswoman Melody Wey said the projected decline in timeliness this year is due to a backlog of requests from last year.

In 2012-13 the provincial government received more than 9,000 requests, which is 16 per cent more than the previous year, Wey said.

According to Wey, staff is working to improve timeliness rates by reducing the number of steps in processing Freedom of Information requests and using new software.

But NDP technology critic George Heyman said the numbers show the B.C. Liberals are not doing very well when it comes to transparency and timeliness.

“If we don’t have access in a timely manner, it means the people whose job it is to hold government to account, whether it’s the media or the opposition, can’t do that effectively,” Heyman said.

The B.C. Liberals were recently criticized in newspaper articles for returning a high number of requests with no documents found.

The obtained documents also show that late requests on average this year are overdue double the amount of days they were last year, rising to 44 days from 22.

Sean Holman, an assistant professor of journalism at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, said the decline in timeliness is likely related to censoring.

Freedom of Information offices are not just in the business of retrieving information, Holman explained, but “eliminating information before it goes out the door.”

“If we had a system where everything is disclosed, we wouldn’t have these kinds of delays,” he said.

Holman filed hundreds of Freedom of Information requests as the founder of Public Eye, a now-defunct online political watchdog website.

He is currently waiting on three late requests from the B.C. government, one of which came with a $2,000 price tag and one of which is now under appeal.

When asked if the requests were on time, Holman said he never expects that anymore.

“I always expect government to take the maximum and that’s generally speaking how it plays out.”

B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner published three reports on timeliness in 2011.

In the office’s April 2012 six-month check-up report, Commissioner Elizabeth Denham criticized the timeliness of the government in answering political party’s access requests.

“Timely responses to access requests promote public trust and confidence,” Denham wrote in the report.

The commissioner declined an interview request, but in an email response spokeswoman Cara McGregor said the commissioner has since shifted focus away from timeliness toward assessing how well the government is doing making information public before it’s requested.

When pushed for a response to questions, McGregor said timeliness in Freedom of Information responses is still a high priority for the office, but its focus shifted when it saw an improvement in the government’s overall timeliness rating.

“Future actions our office takes on the timeliness file will be made public,” she wrote.

Holman said he’s not surprised at the numbers overall.

“It’s always a fight with government and it is always going to be a fight,” he said.

Click below to see my six access requests, correspondence and two pages of relevant information from documents I received.

Part E: Pages 47-48
(*) What is the information?
This information shows how the B.C. government is doing with responding to Access to Information requests. It gives a breakdown of the numbers, which shows they are being answered more late than usual.

(*) From which department and level of government did you obtain these pages?
The B.C. provincial government’s Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services.

(*) Why was this information helpful?
This information gave an update to how the government is performing this year at Freedom of Information requests. The information was available earlier than its usual April reveal. The information adds to the story about Access to Information requests that many journalists were telling a week prior, but gives the new angle of timeliness that was not previously reported on.

The Mackenzie Valley pipeline project was supposed to move natural gas out of the Northwest Territories and bring prosperity to the northern aboriginal groups that supported it.

More than 10 years after it was first proposed, the $16-billion, 1,200-kilometre pipeline is still little more than an idea.

The Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which represents four northern aboriginal groups and their one-third stake in the project, says it’s frustrated oil companies have not worked harder to build the pipeline.

“If industry partners were serious they would have found a way to make it work,” said Fred Carmichael, chairman of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

The pipeline would bring “badly needed” employment to the Northwest Territories, he said.

In January 2012, representatives from the Aboriginal Pipeline Group and Imperial Oil, the lead oil company on the project, met with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development to discuss financial support from the federal government.

According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the aboriginal group was “stunned” by the lengthy approval process for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline and “panicked” about the tight timeline to build it.

At that time, the Mackenzie Valley partners were already two years into their five-year certificate, which expires in December 2015, from the National Energy Board to build a pipeline from the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories to northwest Alberta, with no federal funding or construction to show for it.

The Mackenzie group was offered financial support from the government, but not the loan guarantee they wanted.

Carmichael said the partners turned down the federal money because they couldn’t agree to the conditions attached to it.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development declined to comment for this story.

Carmichael said the Aboriginal Pipeline Group is eager to start construction before the end of 2015, but he expects that no progress will be made until two or three years from now.

He said oil companies sit on land until it makes the most financial sense for them to develop it.

“They take it when they can make the most money off of it,” Carmichael said. “The resources on our lands they use at their will.”

Declining natural gas prices and rising construction costs led to Imperial Oil’s decision to delay construction of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesperson for the company.

“There was a pretty fundamental shift in North American supply and demand for natural gas, largely due to the emergence of shale gas,” he said.

Imperial Oil submitted its application for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline to the National Energy Board in October 2004. The project was not approved until December 2010 after six years of review by multiple branches of government.

Carmichael said it normally takes the federal agency 18 months to two years to approve a project.

Sarah Kylie, a National Energy Board spokeswoman, said in an interview that the involvement of multiple levels of government, and parties in the Northwest Territories including aboriginal groups, was what made the process so lengthy and complicated.

The Aboriginal Pipeline Group is not an oil company. It is reliant on Imperial Oil, Shell, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips, the other partners on the Mackenzie Valley project, to provide the expertise and resources to build it.

Frustrated by the Aboriginal Pipeline Group’s seemingly powerless position in the Mackenzie Valley project, Carmichael said he wants to approach more aboriginal groups to start their own oil company so they won’t have to rely on southern industry in the future.

“We’ve got to somehow build a stronger, trusting relationship between industry, aboriginals and the government,” Carmichael said. “The only way to do that is we need to become partners in the industry.”

Document for ATIP story

You must be logged in to DocumentCloud and have access to David McKie’s Research Methods to view the private documents for ATIP requests and correspondence. Please view them here.

What is the information?

This document is a series of presentation slides and meeting notes between Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, the Aboriginal Pipeline Group and Imperial Oil in regards to the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. Much of the material is boiler plate content and information that is so redacted, the context is missing. However, on page 34 and 36, there are handwritten notes that allude to comments made by an Aboriginal Affairs policy advisor suggesting that the Aboriginal Pipeline Group is frustrated and overwhelmed by the process involved to get the pipeline approved.

From which department and level of government did you obtain these pages?

This document package was received under a previously completed ATIP request from the department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

Why was this information helpful?

I used these notes as a jumping off point to find out how the Aboriginal Pipeline Group felt about the project and why, after 10 years of discussion, construction on it hadn’t even begun. This information acted as a hint as to what kind of questions I should be asking sources about the project.