Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) has won the 2024 "Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy" in the municipal category for its efforts to charge exorbitantly high fees for access to a fire investigation report already paid for by taxpayers.
The award is intended to draw public attention to governments or publicly funded agencies working to hide information to which the public has a right to see.
In the Vancouver case, the fire department was recognized for not wanting to hand over a single-page report about the destruction of the East Hastings Value Village store in June 2022.
Journalist Stanley Tromp sought the records through B.C.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. But that request was refused. Instead, the department wanted to charge Tromp a minimum of $260 for a copy of each report.
Tromp said he appealed the decision to the B.C. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner but was told the act left it helpless to do anything in the particular situation.
Still, Tromp thinks such things should be public.
"I hope it will induce city hall to stop this dangerous absurdity for the sake of public safety and democracy," he said.
The awards are presented annually by the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
Under B.C. law, the public's access to documents can be refused if they are for sale. The law does not put any restrictions on how much a government department or agency can charge for access to documents.
"Taxpayers have already paid for the costs of producing these records," said James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression.
He called the law flawed because it makes the public pay repeatedly for the same information.
“It is inexcusable that the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services has chosen to continue to make such important public information prohibitively expensive for most people when the cost of distribution is minimal in our digital era," he said.
VFRS spokesman Capt. Matthew Trudeau said the Vancouver Fire Bylaw establishes fees for various services that staff provide for specific requests under the freedom of information (FOI) process.
“Requests for fire cause, origin, incident information and/or VFRS involvement is provided at no cost to journalists upon request through the public information officer," Trudeau said.
“When full reports are requested requiring additional unplanned administrative hours, the FOI process is implemented to offset the hours required to fulfill detailed requests."
B.C.’s government won the award two years ago for amendments to FOI legislation critics said weakened it at a time when the laws regulating disclosure of public documents needed to be strengthened.
