Government Transparency and You

It has been a while since my last post, this is mainly due to an increase in work and my recovery over the shock from the Federal Elections...

Now that government is going back to work, we can see our elected officials get busy as they well do their job. With this new change in government strength and the results of the "winds of change" we still have older issues that continue to knock on our door. One very important issue that has not gone away or changed much is the amount of transparency our government is responsible for having with us.


http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/973535--leaked-report-tests-harper-s-claim-of-transparency-former-auditor-says

The Harper office has once again been requested to display dollar amounts and other sensitive documentation with regards to decisions and policy that has been made in the past. The link above is an article released during the most recent federal election.

What you ask for and what you get seldom mirror each other and this case was nothing different. Many released documents that Harper's party allowed were heavily blacked out and covered up.

Let me explain how one must request these documents to further stress my point. The opposition asks the government to release documentation and show the Canadian people what their tax dollars have been going to. If the government denies this request, a party must partake in the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT to acquire these documents. This not only takes time, but costs money in processing and legal fees.

How this affects you: As a result of a lengthier process to acquire information that I believe the people should know, political parties have to spend more in processing and legal fees. This cost comes from their budgets which surprise...comes from your taxes.

The Harper government is not the only one to break this pact with the Canadian people, Chretien's government hid a lot of information about it's involvement in Iraq and probably many other situations that we have yet to find out about.


My question however is: What is your opinion on government transparency?

Should the government have to tell us everything about how it spends our tax money and directs our country? Is there a line when it comes to freedom of information?



In the post 9/11 era the government has made it much easier to acquire information from you and what you do, the freedom of information act was put in place to increase transparency, however loopholes still exist that contradict it.

Tell me what you think.