Our recent close brush with an election made me wonder if we can get the sort of change embodied in Obama's Memo on Transparency and Open Government on the table as an election issue in Canada.

Many of the points of that memo can be traced back to this report, Towards a 21st Century Right to Know Agenda, produced by a coalition of US non-profits with the support of the Sunlight, Ford and Carnegie Foundations.  The group held a series of round table discussions with different levels of governments, uncovering ways to systematically break down barriers to transparency.

While governments in this country will have their own unique issues, there's no question that many of the transparency roadblocks addressed in the report exist in Canada as well.   Here are 8 of the most pertinent recommendations in the report, ready for adoption by candidates who want to become the next Prime Minister:

  1. The Prime Minister should issue a high level statement that he will oversee the ‘most open, honest, and accountable Canadian government ever’
    • The Prime Minister should indicate that his administration will rely on interactive technologies that can make transparency achievable in new ways and create new approaches to make government accountable to its people.
    • The Prime Minister should announce that he will immediately take action to launch a transparency initiative to ensure that government is running in an open, ethical and accountable manner.
    (Adapted from Recommendation B1)

  2. The Prime Minister should immediately instruct agencies to operate in a more open style, making information available to the public in a timely manner and in searchable formats except where prohibited by law.
    • The Prime Minister should instruct agencies to actively and affirmatively disseminate all information, and not to simply wait for an Access to Information request.
    • The Prime Minister should direct agencies to evaluate their practices for handling sensitive information to ensure that the presumption of openness prevails.
    (Adapted from Recommendation B2)

  3. The Prime Minister should invite the public to identify top documents and databases to make publicly available.
    • The Prime Minister should instruct the Treasury Board to use interactive technologies, such as an online survey, to involve federal employees and the public to identify high-priority information needs.
    (Adapted from Recommendation B3)

  4. The Prime Minister should mandate the creation of a centralized digital system for Access to Information Requests that interacts with each agencies Access to Information office.
    • Such a system could find and manage requests more efficiently and reduce the duplication of requests. While not all requests are appropriate for publication, the default for a modern ATIP request should be both digital and public, with support for paper-based or non-public requests still available.
    (Adapted from Recommendation D5)

  5. The Prime Minister should implement a process to better present information about the federal budget in an online format – tracking proposals and changes throughout the process.
    • Facts on the government’s spending of tax dollars are among the most demanded and least understood information held by the federal government. While much data is made available on proposed budgets and agency spending, the information fluctuates in format, scope, and level of details between various government sources that it becomes impossible for the average citizen to understand. The public wants simple answers to straightforward questions on government spending, and with new online tools, these answers should be easier than ever to provide.
    (Adapted from Recommendation D6)

  6. The Prime Minister should instruct agencies to request sufficient resources – funding, personnel, and technical capacity – in annual budget requests to implement the vision of a more transparency government – and the Prime Minister should commit to budgeting sufficient funds. (Adapted from Recommendation E3)

  7. The Prime Minister should instruct agencies to make transparency a factor in federal employee job descriptions.
    • Changing the culture of government to be more transparent will require direct individual accountability for employees and supervisors and recognition of work to improve transparency. Too often in the past, information requests have been denied, new online tools delayed, and information removed without any specific official or employee being held responsible for the action. As much as possible, this accountability should be structures as positive incentives for employees – better performance evaluations for those employees that make strong contributions to ensuring an agency or office is conducting business more transparently.
    (Adapted from Recommendation E13)

  8. The Prime Minister should mandate the creation of a Transparency Scorecard, to be created by a working group, for each agency.
    • Each agency is to display their scorecard as part of their website.
    (Adapted from Recommendation E14)