Government Information In Canada

Introduction : the evolution of government information services and stewardship in Canada / Amanda Wakaruk and Sam-chin Li -- Government publication deposit programs : the Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial landscapes / Graeme Campbell, Michelle Lake, and Catherine McGoveran -- Library and archives Canada : official publications and select digital library collections, 1923-2017 / Tom J. Smyth -- Parliamentary information in Canada : form and function / Talia Chung and Maureen Martyn -- Commissions and tribunals / Caron Rollins -- Alberta government publishing / Dani J. Pahulje -- Saskatchewan government publications deposit in the Legislative Library / Gregory Salmers -- Inside track : challenges of collecting, accessing, and preserving Ontario government publications / Sandra Craig and Martha Murphy -- Digitization of government publications : a review of the Ontario Digitization Initiative / Carol Perry, Brian Tobin, and Sam-chin Li -- GALLOP Portal : making government publications in legislative libraries findable / Peter Ellinger -- The Canadian Government Information Digital Preservation Network : a collective response to a national crisis / Amanda Wakaruk and Steve Marks -- Web harvesting and reporting fugitive government materials : collaborative stewardship of at-risk documents / Susan Paterson, Nicholas Worby, and Darlene Fichter.

Public access to government information forms the foundation of a healthy liberal democracy. Because this information can be precarious, it needs stewardship. Government Information in Canada provides analysis about the state of Canadian government information publishing. Experts from across the country draw on decades of experience to offer a broad, well-founded survey of history, procedures, and emerging issues—particularly the challenges faced by practitioners during the transition of government information from print to digital access. This is an indispensable book for librarians, archivists, researchers, journalists, and everyone who uses government information and wants to know more about its publication, circulation, and retention. Contributors: Graeme Campbell, Talia Chung, Sandra Craig, Peter Ellinger, Darlene Fichter, Michelle Lake, Sam-chin Li, Steve Marks, Maureen Martyn, Catherine McGoveran, Martha Murphy, Dani J. Pahulje, Susan Paterson , Carol Perry, Caron Rollins, Gregory Salmers, Tom J. Smyth, Brian Tobin, Amanda Wakaruk, Nicholas Worby

Opening the Government of Canada presents a compelling case for a more open model of governance in the digital age – but a model that also continues to uphold democratic principles at the heart of the Westminster system. Amanda Clarke details the untold story of the federal bureaucracy’s efforts to adapt to digital-age pressures from the mid-2000s onward. This book reveals the mismatch between the bureaucracy’s closed government traditions and evolving citizen expectations and digital tools. Striking a balance between reform and tradition, lays out a roadmap for building a democratically robust, digital-era federal government.

This document presents an indexed consolidation to the Access to Information Act. The purpose of this Act is to extend the present laws of Canada to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution in accordance with the principles that government information should be available to the public, that necessary exceptions to the right of access should be limited and specific and that decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government.

The purpose of this report is to assess the impact of new information technologies and new information management practices on open government in general, and the principles and application of the Access to Information Act in particular. This report first reviews the legal aspect of access to government information by reviewing the Access to Information Act and other relevant statutes such as the Copyright Act and the Archives Act. Next, it reviews current administrative practices within the federal government such as generating non-tax revenue, pricing practices and the establishment of "special operating agencies" that are likely to have an impact on access to government information. Third, the impact of new information technology on the way information is collected, stored and disseminated is examined with respect to how these developments are likely to affect access to government information. After reviewing legal, administrative and technological developments, the report then discusses the major issues related to the effective administration of the Access to Information Act during the 1990s. Where appropriate, the document recommends amendments to the Act or administrative practices that will ensure that the basic principles of the Act are maintained.