Proceedings in the
Douglas Fir Room

The House in Committee, Section A.

The committee met at 11:06 a.m.

[Jennifer Blatherwick in the chair.]

Committee of Supply

Estimates: Ministry of
Citizens’ Services
(continued)

The Chair: Good morning, Members. I call Committee of Supply, Section A, to order. We are meeting today to continue the consideration of the budget estimates of the Ministry of Citizens’ Services.

On Vote 19: ministry operations, $705,355,000 (continued).

The Chair: Are there any questions?

Rosalyn Bird: Continuing our discussion from yesterday evening, Minister, you indicated that along with MCFD, Health, Transportation and the Public Service Agency all continue to have backlogs of FOI requests.

Can you please provide an explanation as to what challenges the ministries and the PSA are experiencing that continue to cause process delays and an accumulation of FOI requests after implementing the new unified software system?

[11:10 a.m.]

Hon. George Chow: Thank you for the question.

Last evening I mentioned some of the issues with the FOI. They’re not backlogged except for the MCFD. They’re just overdue when they exceed a certain number of days. We could certainly canvass the ministry and get more detail, because our role would just be a monitoring function, in terms of if these exceed a number of days then we put them into a certain category. The requests are kind of late, because there are a large number of requests and they’re very complex, so it takes time for each ministry to answer the request.

Since we launched the new system in September 2024, there have been marked improvements in terms of timeliness. We expect more improvement as we use the system. And as I said, these are not backlogs, except for the MCFD, which really does have a large number of requests that we need to get through.

The other ministry…. I think we could get you specifics after we canvass with the ministry to get more details.

Rosalyn Bird: Over the past few years, requests for personal records to which a fee does not apply experienced a significant uptick. Over the same period, general requests for which a fee applies have declined more than 50 percent. Does the minister have concerns regarding this disproportionate statistic? How will it be addressed?

[11:15 a.m.]

Hon. George Chow: My ministry is committed to providing timely and helpful freedom-of-information services to the people in B.C. People requesting their own personal information pay no fee at all, and Indigenous government entities are not required to pay an application fee.

The $10 application fee for non-personal FOI requests is in line with fees charged in other jurisdictions in Canada. Since the introduction of the application fee, my ministry has been monitoring its impact. While the fee does not appear to pose a barrier to making an FOI request, we continue to monitor its impact and make informed improvements to our FOI services.

Rosalyn Bird: I would have to respectfully disagree with you, Minister. Many FOI requests actually incur fees in the thousands of dollars, with the various fee schedules. Based on feedback received from stakeholders and partners over the duration of the previous four years, has there been any discussion or consideration to remove, adjust or increase any of the current fee schedules?

Hon. George Chow: Thank you for the question. According to our statistics, we have not seen a large drop in FOI requests because of the implementation of the fees. As I said, we are proactively disclosing 17 categories of information to do with the government as well as the ministers and the MLAs.

The fee was put in because certain media requests were really overwhelming in terms of the system. Before the fee was instituted, there was one media request that accounted for three-quarters of the requests that came to our ministry. Since we instituted the fee, that has dropped to 20 percent. That’s quite a drop, from 75 percent to 20 percent.

I think the fee also has the effect of people who are making the request directing their question to the proper ministry. Of course, if they were directing it at a different ministry, we could help them to redirect it to the proper ministry, and there’s no charge for that.

Rosalyn Bird: Just to clarify, the $10 fee was brought in because an individual within the media industry was making a large number of requests that were taking up too much time for the ministry. Instead of dealing with that individual, this ministry decided to implement a $10 fee for every British Columbian that wanted to submit an FOI request? That’s the first question.

[11:20 a.m.]

The second question is the same as the last question, because it did not get answered. Based on feedback received from stakeholders and partners over the duration of the previous four years, have there been any discussions or consideration to remove, adjust or increase the current fee schedules?

Hon. George Chow: The $10 fee is not a barrier to people making requests. Based on our ongoing monitoring, there is no plan to adjust the fee at this point in time.

Rosalyn Bird: Can the minister tell me how much the B.C. government has collected in all FOI processing fees since the fee schedules were brought into effect?

Hon. George Chow: For the fiscal year 2023 to 2024, we have collected $29,000 under this $10 application fee. So $29,650 for that fiscal year, ’23-24.

Rosalyn Bird: I’m going to switch directions here. In August 2024, staff from your ministry briefed the OIPC, Human Rights Commissioner and the Ombudsman on the revised responsible use of AI guiding principles.

Their feedback was expected in October of 2024. If the feedback was received, did it result in any adjustments to the current AI policy framework?

[11:25 a.m.]

Hon. George Chow: In November 2024, our ministry published a website dedicated to artificial intelligence that includes information on the policy framework principles for responsive-use AI and generative AI, as well as success stories on how different ministries are using AI effectively.

As a result of that, B.C. public servants commented on the draft principle. We gave them a term, and they made comments from October 17, 2023, to January, 31, 2024. Their feedback and feedback from the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commissioner and Ombudsperson has been incorporated into the updated principles.

Rosalyn Bird: Earlier this year the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. released an investigation report, 25-01: Municipal disclosure of records. It contained four key recommendations.

What role, responsibility and/or authority does the minister hold to ensure recommendations contained in investigation reports and others regarding the FOI process are implemented?

[11:30 a.m.]

Hon. George Chow: The OIPC, the Privacy Commissioner, made the recommendation to municipalities. We don’t have oversight over local government bodies. The OIPC role is for that oversight.

There is one recommendation that would apply to us, and we will be reviewing that recommendation from the Privacy Commissioner.

Rosalyn Bird: The B.C. Information Management Act requires the establishment of digital archives to preserve records of archival value and make them available to the public. The government information is retained, archived and disposed of in accordance with the chief-records-officer-approved information schedules.

In 2024, this government procured a digital repository for the archives. What stage has the development of policy and process and transfer of information to the repository reached?

Hon. George Chow: Thank you for the question, Member.

The member is correct. The government has completed the first significant milestone towards establishing a digital archive by producing a digital repository to securely store government digital records of permanent value. But we are in the early stages of the project. And so this is where we’re at.

[11:35 a.m.]

Of course, going forward, the digital archive will exist in parallel with the B.C. Archives. The B.C. Archives are held at the Royal B.C. Museum, which also archives physical records. This is a record of permanent value remaining in the custody of the ministry at this time. The government’s record management policy and practices direct that these records be fully retained and not destroyed. So physical records of permanent value continue to be transferred to the B.C. Archives as part of the Royal B.C. Museum.

Rosalyn Bird: Thank you, Minister. According to the chief records officer directive CRO 01 of 2023, 1 October 2023, it is expected that the digital archives established under section 12(1) of the act will be operational on or before September 30, 2025. Does the minister anticipate that this timeline will actually be met?

[11:40 a.m.]

Hon. George Chow: I’d like to confirm that the digital repository is in operation.

We are doing a pilot using the records we have in my ministry. This will be completed by September 2025. From then on, we’ll make improvements from what we learn from this pilot project, and then we’ll onboard the other ministries. But it will take a few years before the entire repository is in operation with all the ministries.

Rosalyn Bird: If the timeline in a directive cannot be met, is there a requirement for the CRO to issue a new directive? And does the minister, based on the pilot project, have any idea of when we can expect this project to come to fruition?

Hon. George Chow: The CRO will, before September 30 this year, update the directive to all the ministries to ask them to continue to hold their digital records of archival value until the transfer to the digital archive. That’s by September 30.

This is a new service. It’s not a project. We will actually have to assess the readiness of each ministry, the 24 ministries, in order to be able to deposit their information in this digital archive. I would anticipate that when this is fully operational, it will be several years.

The Chair: I ask the minister to move the motion.

Hon. George Chow: I move that the committee rise and report progress and ask leave to sit again.

Motion approved.

The Chair: Thank you, Members. This committee stands adjourned.

The committee rose at 11:45 a.m.