Saskatchewan's information commissioner proposed in a ruling today that information requests should be free where made for a "compelling public interest", a standard currently present in most provinces.
I'd agree with that step, but the progress shouldn't stop there. Ultimately, information should generally be available for free unless there's particular expense or difficulty involved in putting it together.
Effectively, the "compelling public interest" should be presumed: a province or country is best off where its citizens look carefully at the government's activities, and there shouldn't be a financial penalty for reasonable efforts to do so.
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