Filling time waiting for ATIP packages
Waiting for documents from access-to-information requests can seem like a lifetime, actually 80 years in one case. Consider designating someone in your last will and testament to receive the records after you’ve croaked.
Meanwhile, enterprising journalists can fill the time by stalking documents in open-source, online government repositories. Yes, they’re available to anyone but few reporters bother checking. Scoops are surprisingly easy.
As a document-hound at The Canadian Press and CBC, I began each day with a strong black coffee, and 15 minutes spent nosing into a handful of websites. Hardly a morning passed without something juicy popping up. My favourites:
1. The weekly Canada Gazette is called the federal government’s “official newspaper.” It’s actually a grab-bag registry of regulations, appointments, tax changes, decisions, etc. Published each Saturday, insiders know to look for it at 2 p.m. ET on Fridays, when it’s quietly posted. Gems do lurk among the turgid listings.
2. Federal departments commission public-opinion surveys for many reasons, say, to find out where the crowd is headed so the minister can rush to the front and lead. Final reports from surveys must be sent to Library and Archives Canada within six months of data collection. They’re then posted on this searchable website. Despite the lag time, stories abound. One memorable example: a poll about the disastrous Canada Day on Parliament Hill in 2017. (It got a thumbs down.)
3. Almost all cabinet decisions – called Orders in Council – are published, except for a handful secret security edicts. There’s no schedule. They typically appear on this website a week or so after a cabinet meeting, sometime with attachments. The strangest things get posted. Cabinet, for example, has to approve nannies for the prime minister’s kids.
4. Ottawa spends billions on goods and services, and most contracts are publicly tendered here, on a government-run website called Canada Buys. Dozens of new tenders pop up every day, usually with a full description of problems that need fixing – sometimes hitherto unknown problems. Bingo.
5. The federal government accumulates a lot of stuff. Old office furniture, merchandise seized at border crossings, Canada Revenue Agency confiscations from delinquent scofflaws. Much of it is up for auction on this website, with photos of the merchandise. Not a terribly reliable source for stories, but often good for a giggle. I remember spotting a batch of Trump-branded dress shirts here.
6. Amendments to the Access to Information Act in 2019 require federal institutions to proactively disclose a few classes of records, such as the titles of ministerial briefing notes, question period notes, and briefing binders for new ministers and deputy heads. These disclosures are gathered here, with search engines. Briefing notes are the most likely to contain news, but only the titles are posted. You have to file an ATIA request to obtain the actual document.
7. Finally, this database has bare-bones information about previously released ATIA packages from the previous two years. If something looks promising, there’s an electronic request function allowing you to informally request the same package. Responses are notoriously slow.
These are all good hunting grounds to fill the downtime waiting for ATIP packages. And don’t forget to amend your will.
Jan 22, 2022
On Jan. 19, 2024, I updated the link for No. 4, Canada Buys.
