Judge orders Alberta to produce massive trove of coal documents after four-year fight
The Alberta government must produce thousands of documents on its attempts to encourage coal mining in the Rocky Mountains after a judge threw out a bid to block their release.
In denying the government's request for a judicial review into an order to provide the documents, Justice Kent Teskey warned the province that courts take a dim view of delay being used to neuter public attempts to understand how important decisions are made.
“The requesting parties have been practically denied access to the information they are entitled to at law and this court will not abet this conduct through the availability of judicial review,” he wrote in a judgment released Friday.
“If public bodies are unwilling or unable to comply with their timely obligations under (freedom of information law), they should expect that courts may apply a high level of scrutiny on the availability of judicial review.”
The judgment relates to an attempt by a group of southern Alberta ranchers to understand why the United Conservative Party government chose in 2020 to rescind a decades-old policy that had blocked open-pit coal development from the beloved landscapes of the southern foothills and Rockies.
In 2020, the group asked Alberta Energy for briefing notes, internal memos, reviews, reports and correspondence.
Legislation says a public body has 30 days to make reasonable attempts to respond but may make 30-day extensions. Those extensions were imposed again and again and, after 15 months, the department released 30 pages of what it said were 6,539 records.
It eventually refused to release any more, using exemptions allowed by the law. The ranchers appealed that decision to the Information and Privacy Commissioner's office, and the exemptions were disallowed.
The judge threw out the government's request for a judicial review of that decision, saying it relied too heavily on loopholes for cabinet discussions.
“Cabinet confidence is essential to ensure that the government can deliberate freely and unimpeded, but it does not exist to allow governing in secrecy,” Teskey wrote.
As well, the judge said the government changed, without explanation, the number of documents involved, cutting the original number by more than a third.
“I am concerned about the seemingly casual attitude that Alberta Energy adopted in representing the number of records before the commissioner,” Teskey wrote.
His ruling emphasized the importance of timely access to government records.
“Every Albertan is entitled to a broad right of access to the records of their government. This is an essential pillar of a functional democracy.
“It is difficult not to look at the history of this matter and see the critical rights imbued by access to information as being largely illusory.”
Laura Laing, one of the ranchers who made the information request, said the four-year fight was worth it.
“I think (the government) expects people to give up. We're ranchers. We're gritty.”
Laing said she's so far received 609 pages of documents and many have been heavily redacted.
“It'll probably take years before we can get all the redactions removed. But we're determined.”
The government policy decision that sparked their request has since been reversed. But Laing said it's worth understanding how it was made in the first place.
“Nothing about this coal file has made sense from the beginning. We and Albertans deserve to know the truth behind decisions like this.”
Alberta Energy was unable to immediately provide a comment on the ruling.
Recently, the department provided direction to the province's energy regulator that it should consider exploration licence applications in the Rockies from an Australian coal company. Those applications are to go before public hearings later this spring.
In January, the Globe and Mail reported Alberta's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner had launched a review into an array of government departments concerning non-compliance with provincial access to information law.
In an investigation into freedom of information across Canada, the newspaper found Alberta was the only province that refused to provide basic information on the functioning of its system.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Speaker kicks Poilievre out of Commons over unparliamentary comments
Speaker Greg Fergus kicked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre out of the House of Commons during question period today.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland previews omnibus budget bill, proposed capital gains tax change left out
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
McGill requests 'police assistance' over pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University says it has 'requested police assistance' about the pro-Palestinian encampment on its lower field.
Judge raises threat of jail in hush money trial as he holds Trump in contempt, fines him US$9,000
Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined US$9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. And if he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.
Court upholds Milwaukee police officer's firing for posting racist memes after Sterling Brown arrest
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a former Milwaukee police officer was properly fired for posting racist memes related to the arrest of an NBA player that triggered a public outcry.
Video captures deadly wrong-way police chase on Highway 401 in Ontario
A new video has surfaced showing a vehicle being pursued by police in the wrong direction on Highway 401 moments prior to a fatal crash that killed four people, including an infant and their grandparents.