HARMAN BHANGU: Bill-9 says the government will get to decide whether your request is good enough to bother answering

Bill-9 could directly restrict how I do my job as an opposition MLA. 

Freedom of information is one of the only real tools we have to figure out what government is actually doing behind the scenes. Press releases tell you what the government wants you to hear. The real story lives in briefing notes, internal emails, and reports that only come out when someone forces the government to hand them over.

Bill 9 weakens that system.

Right now the law says government must respond “without delay.” Bill 9 replaces that with “without unreasonable delay.” 

That might sound like a small wording change, but anyone who has dealt with bureaucracy knows exactly what it means: more wiggle room to stall, more excuses, and more waiting while the government runs out the clock.

The bill also lets ministries decide whether a request has “enough detail” before they even start looking for records. In other words, the government gets to decide whether your request is good enough to bother answering. And if officials decide the request interferes with the operations of the Government of British Columbia, they can simply toss it aside.

That is flat out information gatekeeping.

Freedom of information exists so ordinary people, journalists, and opposition MLAs can follow the paper trail and see how decisions are really made. It is one of the few ways citizens can look behind the curtain of government.

Instead of strengthening that right, the NDP under David Eby is busy watering it down.

If the government is proud of its decisions, it should welcome scrutiny. If everything is above board, the records should speak for themselves. But when a government starts rewriting the rules around access to information, people start asking a very simple question: 

"What exactly are they trying to hide?"

British Columbians deserve a government that trusts them with the truth. Bill 9 moves us in the opposite direction. It gives government more power, less scrutiny, and fewer reasons to answer to the people paying the bills.


Harman Bhangu ... is the MLA for the riding of Langley–Abbotsford, the official opposition Transportation Critic, and a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of BC.