Why the secrecy on sea lice?
July 6th, 2010
Times Colonist
The provincial government spent six years -- and a lot of taxpayers' money -- fighting to keep statistics on sea lice and farmed salmon secret. It lost. The information and privacy commissioner ultimately ruled the government had no legal reason to keep the information from the public. It ordered the Agriculture Ministry to release the data to Ecojustice and the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation, which filed the requests for data from 2002 and 2003 back in 2004.
The organizations, believing the case settled, then filed requests for data from more recent years to allow analysis of sea-lice trends.
And again, the provincial government has said no. This time, it is basing the refusal on an entirely different section of the freedom of information legislation.
The government had justified the first refusal by claiming that releasing the information would hurt the interests of the salmon aquaculture companies. That argument was rejected by the information commissioner.
Read the full story in The Times Colonist
Read related stories:
- The Province; June 30, 2010; "It's clear the Libs put aquaculture ahead of wild fish - Gov't playing foul with our tax dollars"
- The Globe and Mail; June 29, 2010; "Environmental groups accuse B.C. of changing rules over lice ruling"
Posted July 6th, 2010
