Mr. Stan Keyes, M.P.
Chair, Liaison Committee
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario

March 1, 1995

Dear Mr. Keyes,

It has come to the attention of the Information Policy Committee of the British Columbia Library Association that the Liaison Committee will soon be considering changes in the Standing Orders, proposed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in its Sixty-First Report. We also understand that the purpose of these changes is to reduce, if not eliminate, publishing of minutes of parliamentary committees.

On behalf of our committee, I strongly object to these proposals. Our Association has consistently maintained that access to government information is an indispensible requirement for a democratic society, and what more important government information can there be than the working records of the highest legislative authority in the country?

The records of committees are particularly important, because so much of Parliament's work is conducted in committee. Moreover, as our system evolves toward a kind of government by executive, there is little opportunity for voices of dissent to be heard. Committee hearings are among the few such opportunities, and to leave such testimony unpublished would effectively suppress it.

All of us appreciate your concern to find economies in government operations. And yet it would be a false economy if it is effected at the cost of critical democratic principles. We hope that on consideration your Committee will reject these recommendations.

Yours sincerely,

Jacqueline van Dyk
Chair, British Columbia Information Policy Committee

c.c. Peter Milliken
Chair, Standing Committee on Procedure & House Affairs

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