The house always wins

The Public Eye: March 30, 2010
British Columbia Lottery Corp. wants to keep its cards even closer to its chest. The Crown corporation is recommending dramatic legal changes would make it even more difficult from British Columbians to find out its secrets. Under the province's existing freedom of information legislation, BCLC can refuse to release information that could result that would result in "undue financial loss or gain" for a third party. But the corporation, in a submission to the committee reviewing that legislation, argues there "should be a broader acceptance of its records having potential commercial value" because it operates in a business environment where competitors in other jurisdiction may not be subject to freedom of information requests. As a result, it wants to be able to refuse to release information could result in "any financial loss or gain" for a third party. The corporation is also asking for the power to impede those who file a "large or complex volume of requests....over a short time frame." And it no longer wants to be required to disclose its policy manuals to whoever asks for them - regardless of whether they've filed a freedom of information request. The following is a complete copy of that submission. British Columbia Lottery Corp. freedom of information submission