Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr will be stepping into a new role after the Wildrose Party announced a shuffle in their shadow cabinet and leadership roles.
Cyr will be changing gears as he takes on his task as shadow minister for Service Alberta and chair of the standing committee on public accounts.
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) falls under his role as Shadow Minister for Service Alberta, an assignment he said he is excited to take on.
“It's the transparency of government, and this is something I am a huge advocate for,” Cyr added. “It's a natural fit for me to be promoting that we need to be transparent to all Albertans when it comes to anything our Alberta government does.”
Cyr said he is interested in bringing forward a possible change to the FOIP Act to ensure the privacy commissioner has the tools necessary to investigate complaints brought forward from Albertans.
He will also be working on ensuring media and opposition party requests through FOIP are heard. As well as, looking into how Albertans, media and opposition parties can better access documents from the provincial government without having “the government waiving a privilege that probably shouldn't exist.”
Issues within the FOIP system, Cyr said, include the high value the government is putting on information, including documents paid for by reporters that come back with minimal facts, if any.
“They are hampering it by cost, and that is just not okay.”
Some of the documents provided are redacted; with areas containing sensitive or confidential information removed or blacked out.
Cyr said in some cases the redacting is “to the point where you can't even understand what's in there.”
In these cases, reporters and opposition parties are required put in a request to Service Alberta through the FOIP Act.
One of the issues with this system, Cyr continued, is that in some cases the government has just the right amount of time between the release of the documents and the FOIP request submission that they are able to release the information themselves, in a way that shares what they want when they want.
“That's not okay, because in the end what we need is for our media and opposition parties to be able to go in and see what's going on and to be able to hold the government accountable when bad things happen.”
Acting as shadow minister will also have Cyr enforcing stakeholder outreach and ensuring registry agents voices are hear. He will be on the forefront of ensuring IT infrastructure dollars are spent properly so the government is getting “the best bang for our dollars.”
Cyr said as Chair of the Standing Committee of Public Affairs, he will be a step up from his previous involvement with the committee.
Since its creation in May 2015, Cyr has been a member of the association, and said being chosen as chair for the committee is a huge honour because it's the only chair the opposition party holds within the provincial government.
“To be moved to be chair of the committee is a true honour,” explained Cyr.
The committee, which is made up of representatives from all parties, works on holding government bureaucrats accountable for decisions being made within the government including the tobacco gate, the sky palace and “things that affect all parts of Alberta.”
Cyr said, “I know in my ability I will make sure Bonnyville-Cold Lake's voice is heard, and we need to make sure rural Albertans are heard.”
