Shady business

The Tyee reports on how B.C.'s "open and accountable" right-wing government is working out these days:

Last week, Bill 23 was introduced, which would allow government to keep secret the final reports of public inquiries. Now, we face Bill 30, which could seal information about nearly ANY of government's financial arrangements with the private sector...

As Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer noted "(Bill 30) is intended to erect a legislative framework around the Liberal experiments in having private companies assume contractual responsibility for providing government services," that is, the so-called P3s.

The government can designate a "joint solution project" that the added secrecy level is applied to, but one problem is that the term is not defined. It is not clear which projects the government would apply the JSP status to, or why, but it grants itself the complete discretion to do so. Many believe that JSP and another term "procurement project" are so vague they could be applied to nearly ANY financial arrangement with a third party. "The definition leaves it wide open to designation," (Liberal MLA Blair) Lekstrom lamented...

Not only is the bill a great danger to our democratic system to cloak government projects in secrecy, it can also create immense financial consequences for taxpayers. This legislation creates a potential breeding ground for waste, fraud and mismanagement. A B.C. provincial equivalent of the entire Quebec sponsorship program could have been marked as a "joint service project," meaning all information "jointly developed" (such as advertising contracts and plans) could be sealed. It was FOI requests by the media that first exposed the Quebec scandal and led to the Gomery Inquiry - but in B.C., this might not be possible now.

Even with a minority government which can't force legislation through Parliament, Campbell's federal counterpart has been noted to have included provisions to isolate the inner legislative circle from scrutiny. And with Campbell apparently setting the precedent, it isn't hard to see where federal law might go if the Cons were to win a majority. After all, the Bill 30 example would fit nicely with both the Cons' ideological desire to create disincentives to public-sector projects in favour of P3s, and Harper's apparent insistence on personal control over information.

Given that Campbell's party obviously isn't in line on this issue just yet, there may be time to stop the B.C. legislation. But even if the current bill can be stopped, the example of Bill 30 - and the potential for exactly the kind of abuse so often criticized by the Cons - should be kept in mind next time Harper demands the trust of Canadians at the polls.

(Edit: typo.)

Update: Good news for now, as both of the controversial B.C. bills have been "deferred" for this session of the Legislature.