Letter to the Prime Minister (May 2025)
May 13, 2025
The Right Honourable Mark Carney, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister:
Please accept my sincere congratulations on your swearing-in as Prime Minister and your election to the House of Commons.
As Information Commissioner of Canada, I am entrusted with upholding Canadians’ right of access to information, recognized as a quasi-constitutional right by the Supreme Court of Canada. I fulfill this mandate by providing advice to Parliament and by investigating complaints regarding government institutions’ handling of requests made under the Access to Information Act.
I noted with great interest your recent comments reported in the media—that you believe that an objective review of access to information would serve Canadians well—as well as your own observations regarding your experiences with the system. I can assure you that your concerns are shared by me, and many others. Since I took on the role of Information Commissioner in 2018, I have observed a steady decline in the access to information system, to the point where it no longer serves its intended purpose. By focusing too heavily on what the law permits them to redact, institutions have lost sight of the law’s core purpose — to enable access to information that can and should be disclosed.
There is a broad consensus that an overhaul of both the legislation and the system is urgently needed, with multiple studies and reviews highlighting widespread agreement on the necessary changes. As I stated last November during my appearance before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, the policy and legislative changes that I recommend are based on experience and endorsed by stakeholders, which is why I intend to once again play an active role in this essential exercise in buttressing one of the fundamental pillars of our democracy.
The law currently provides for a review of the Act every five years. Since the last review was launched in June of 2020 following the previous year’s reforms to the Act, your pledge to conduct another is both timely and welcome. I look forward to its launch prior to the deadline of June 21, 2025.
It is my hope that the review will be conducted expeditiously. I am encouraged by your focus on government productivity and your stated intent to transform government by better leveraging technology. These have the potential to pay great dividends in the areas of access and information management.
The time for action has come. At this critical moment in the history of our country, Canadians must have confidence in their government. Therefore, I call upon your government to adopt a transparency-by-default ethos and approach to governance, as advocated by me and fellow provincial and territorial information commissioners and ombuds, coupled with a commitment to providing Canadians with the information they are entitled to in a timely manner. Both could go a long way toward securing the trust of Canadians while helping combat misinformation and disinformation.
In closing, I hope to have the opportunity to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss the important matters I have raised in this letter and begin a constructive dialogue on how the access to information system can better serve Canadians.
Yours respectfully,
Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada
c.c.: The Honorable Shafqat Ali, President of the Treasury Board of Canada
Mr. John Hannaford, Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet