The Information Access and Privacy annual report released today, Sept. 28, shows government is becoming more transparent and making it easier for Nova Scotians to access information.
Nova Scotia is the first province to offer full FOIPOP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) services online. Citizens can apply for government records and receive their responses though the Internal Services website. More than 870 applications have been submitted online since January 2017.
“We’ve made great strides opening up access to government information in the last year with the new FOIPOP portal, online disclosures and expanding open-data offerings for everyone,” said Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab. “We will continue to strengthen our access and privacy practices to improve transparency and accountability.”
Nova Scotia is also the third province to start posting some completed FOIPOP requests online for the public to see. The disclosure log website makes government decisions more transparent by improving public access to information held by government.
The report shows the provincial government is providing timely and consistent responses to FOIPOP requests. More than 2,200 applications were received last year and 81 per cent were completed within 30 days. Government also collected processing costs for just four per cent of applications in 2016-17.
The report is available from http://novascotia.ca/is/reports.asp.
Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 is International Right to Know Week in Nova Scotia. Governments around the world use this week to raise awareness of a citizen’s right to access government information and promote freedom of information as a democratic right.
Source: Release