Bill 224 (Legislature 18, Session 3)

L18 S3 5829

Alberta — Bills

1977 Bill 224 Third Session, 18th Legislature, 26 Elizabeth II THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ALBERTA BILL 224

AN ACT RESPECTING THE RIGHT OF THE PUBLIC TO INFORMATION CONCERN'ING THE PUBLIC BUSINESS DR. BUCK First Reading .............................. . Second Reading .......................... . Third Reading .. Printed by the Queen's Printer for the Province of Alberta, EDMONTON

Bill 224 Dr. Buck BILL 224 1977

AN ACT RESPE'CTI'NG THE R'IGHTO'F THE PUBLIC TO INFORMATI'ON CONCERNING THE PUBLIC BUSINESS (Assented to , 1977) HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Albe~ta, enacts as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as The Right to Information Act. 2. In this Act, (

a) public business includes any activity or operation carried on or performed in Alberta or elsewhere (

i) by the Government of Alberta, or by any de partment, b~anch, board, commission, agency or Crown Corporation, and (ii) by any corporation, partnership or other busi ness venture in which the Government of Al berta or any department, branch, board, com mission, agency or Crown Corporation thereof, is a shareholder, member, partner or party; and (b) "record" includes the whole or any part of any book, document, paper, card, tape or other thing on or in which information is written, recorded, stored or reproduced and, where the record does not convey the information contained in the record by reason of having been kept in a form that requires trans lation, processing .or explanation, includes a trans cript of the translation, processing or explanation of the record. 3.

Any person who resides in or who is domiciled in Al berta may apply to the Government for a record made in the course of public busine'8s and the Government shaH, within a reasonable time therefter, provide a copy of such record to any person who so applies or make such record available for inspection by him, for a reasonable time and in normal business hours.

Explanatory N'otes I.

Short title. 2.

Definitions. 3. Resident entitled to record of public business.

Section 3 shall not apply to any record or p,art thereof (

a) where any statutory or other law provides that the record or part thereof shall not be made public; (

b) that is privileged as having been made in the course of an investigation or inquiry in the administration of the law or in the course of ohtaining or giving legal advice or in contemplation of a legal proceed ing; (

c) where the information on record is elsewhere pro vided or 'available either under any statutory or other law or as a result of the exe~cise of a discre tion allowed to a public official except where the public official has declined to make it available; (

d) where the information on record is so trivial in public interest that the cost to provide or to m'ake the record available is not in the public interest; (

e) where the application thereof is made for a frivo lous or vexatious purpose; (

f) that is privileged as being of a confidential nature exchanged by public officials within the Govern ment and any other government and is expressed to be confidential; (

g) where the information on record is private in that it relates to the private affairs of any person or organization and, upon a balance between private and public interest, it is not in the public interest to provide or to make the record available; or (

h) of a court proceeding where such court has by order of ,a judge operated in camera. 5.

(1) Any person who believes tbat he is entitled to a record under

section 3, who applies to the Government for a record of rpublic business and is denied in writing or, with in 'a reasonable time after application made, is not provided with a copy of the record or has not had the record made available to him for inspection, may apply by notice of mo tion, in the Supreme Court of Alberta for an order that the Government comply with the application and if, in the opinion of the Court, the person is so entitled it shall grant the order.

(2) At the hearing of the application for an order, the Government may produce evidence to show that the record comes within the scope of

section 4 and in any case where privilege or privacy is claimed under subsections (b), (

f) or (

g) of

section 4, may present particulars of such claim in 'a sealed envelope to be opened and read only by the judge hearing the application. 2

4. Exceptions. 5. Court order. 2

(3) The judge may order information contained in the sealed envelope to be resealed or to be conlmunicated to the person who applied :for the order or to be otherwise dealt with as he see fit. ( 4) An order made under this

section shall be served on the Government by serving a copy on the Deputy Minister of the Executive Council of Alberta. 6. A proceeding under this Act other than a proceeding pursuant to

section 9 shall be deemed not to be an action as defined in The Alberta Evidence Act. 7. No appeal lies from any order made under this A'ct except as provided in subseotion (3) and (4) of

section 5, and no order shall be made by the Court as to costs in the application. 8.

(1) Upon an application made under

section 3, the Government shall appoint a member or other official of the Government to represent and to be responsible for and on behalf of the Government in all proceedings upon the ap plication and shall give notice to the applicant of the iden tity of the person so appointed.

(2) The person appointed under subsection (1) shall sign any denial of the application or any claim of privilege or privacy pursuant to

section 5. 9.

(1) Every person who violates or fails to comply with any provision of this Act or any order made by a court pursuant to this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable on

summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.

(2) Any proceeding under this

section may be instituted at any time within six months after the time when the sub ject matter of the proceeding arose. 10. The provisions of this Act shall not be construed so as to exclude any method of obtaining public information which is established by law. 11. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to abrogate, abridge or infringe any 'Of the privileges, immunities and powers held, enjoyed or exercised by the Legislative As sembly of Alberta or by the members thereof. 12. This Act binds the Crown. 1,3. This A'ct comes into force on the day upon which it is assented to. 3

6. Application not proceeding under The Alberta Evidence Act. 7. Appeal. 8. Representative of Government. 9. Offence; penalty; limita,tion. 10. Other rights to information not hereby excluded. II. Privileges of Legislative Assembly saved. 12. Binds Crown. 13. Coming into force. 3 Title: 1977 (18th, 3rd) Bill 224,

An Act Respecting the Right of the Public to Information Concerning the Public Business

Document details

Collection	Alberta — Bills
Citation	L18 S3 5829
Type	bill
Volume / chapter	L18 S3 5829
Language	en
Format	json
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	27a2310dfcabd7cd91dbf3e3a40f52e4088f35d0

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