The pause that refreshes in the corridors of power

Oh, Carole Lavallée. During the Mulroney/Schreiber hearings, you became known to ITQ readers as the Voice of Sanity – now, here you are, successfully moving an entirely sensible motion condemning the Conservative decision to kill off the ATI request database. Really, what would the Ethics committee – or the rest of us, for that matter – do without you? I don’t suppose you’d be willing to reconsider that whole separatism thing, would you?

Carole Lavallée moved, — That Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the parliamentary Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics report to the House as its 6th report that it:

• deplores the fact that, at the request of Treasury Board, as of April 1 2008 officials are no longer updating the Coordination of Access to Information Requests System (CAIRS), a central database for all requests filed with the government under the Access to Information Act; and

• demands that the Conservative government reinstate this tool, which promotes transparency and accountability; and

• encourages the Conservative government to make this database available online and free of charge.

The question was put on the motion and the results of the vote was announced: YEAS: 5; NAYS: 5.

Whereupon, the Chair voted in the affirmative.

Accordingly, the motion was agreed to.