Waterkeepers have made a Freedom of Information request in response to Nova Scotia Environments stated policy that "provides access to most records under the control of the provincial government." Although the cost of a FOIPOP is nominal, arbitrary fees have made the final cost $1200. The results occupy over 2400 pages, unsearchable and unindexed. It is a daunting task to sort through so much unorganized and opaque (dis)information.
Some important requested material is omitted without explanation. In general, the process is flawed:
- Information seekers are the enemy
- Protecting the bureaucracy is job #1
- Pages are images, not words
- Many pages are long and repetitive email threads
- There is little evidence of any coherent information system
- The goal is to check boxes, not to protect Nova Scotians
- Proponents do their own monitoring
- Consultants who successfully advocate an assessment are rewarded with ongoing contracts
In the spirit of openness and, frankly, because we need your help, the 3 part FOIPOP and high level table of contents patiently assembled by Laura Bright is available here.
We invite you to browse freely and to send comments to our Crowd Research Initiative using this short form. If you would take a few minutes to read 10 pages at random and categorize them it would be a great help. You can see the result of your efforts here. Start where you like, or click below for a random page and begin there.
Thank you in advance.
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